Increasingly, high profile criminal and civil legal actions around the world highlight the interactions between medicine and the law. Forensic and legal medicine describes the body of knowledge that encompasses this interaction. The terms generally embrace forensic pathology and clinical forensic medicine. However, the nature of forensic and legal medicine is broad and may extend beyond medical and legal issues, into scientific and technical areas, and include specialist roles such as anthropology, toxicology, odontology and psychiatry. Separate from these issues is the much more widely recognized need to apply moral, ethical and human rights principles in the investigation of certain crimes, whether considering victims or perpetrators. Those involved in the practice of forensic and legal medicine and those in legal, judicial, police and other investigative organizations which require knowledge of aspects of forensic and legal medicine often need to identify appropriate and relevant information. The aim of this Encyclopedia is to provide a reliable starting point for validated information across these fields.
