The purpose of this research is to examine the emerging field of forensic radiology. The plan of the research will be to set forth a working definition of the discipline of forensic pathology and then to discuss the ways in which the discipline is developing, not only on account of methods employed in recent years to exploit the technical capabilities of x-ray technology but also (and more crucially) on account of the enlarged range of medical and legal applications implied by improved technical capabilities.
What must be understood first about forensic radiology is that as of late 1998 it is not a term in wide and common use in the professional literature. To be sure, forensic medicine has long been a part of scientific discourse, associated in both the popular culture and in scientific, professional, and law-enforcement circles principally with examination of human corpses for the purpose of determining an otherwise unexplained cause of death. Also called medical jurisprudence, forensic medicine is the name given to "application of medical science to the solution of legal questions that have a medical aspect," and it is associated with providing expert legal testimony derived from evidence obtained by way of the scientific method and meant to facilitate the presentation of facts in criminal cases. Radiology, in medicine, is one name (the other is radiotherapy) given to the use of x-ray technology to treat cancer, while radiographs, the product of x-ray photography, are used as a core medical-diagnostics tool, notably in the detection of foreign bodies and bacterial, viral, or somatic abnormalities, including bone fractures, inside the human body, whether alive or dead.
From the foregoing a working definition of forensic radiology, or forensic radiography, can be inferred, as the use of radiographs in a full range of activities associated with medical jurisprudence and forensic pathology. One source, indeed, has made such an i...