Improving the Forensic Documentation of Injuries Through Alternate Light: A Researcher-Practitioner Partnership.

ABSTRACT: An alternate light source (ALS) is a practitioner-driven technology that can potentially improve the documentation of injuries among victims of interpersonal violence. However, evidence-based guidelines are needed to incorporate and document an ALS skin assessment into a forensic medical examination that accurately reflects the science, context of forensic nursing practice, trauma-informed responses, and potential impact on criminal justice stakeholders. This article introduces the forensic nursing community to a current translation-into-practice project focused on developing and evaluating an ALS implementation program to improve the assessment and documentation of bruises among adult patients with a history of interpersonal violence. Our researcher-practitioner collaboration uses theory-based approaches that consider both the developed program's practice context and stakeholder impact. The goal is to provide evidentiary support for adult victims of violence and a more equitable forensic nursing practice that benefits diverse patient populations.

Forensic Medical Examinations: Imagining Justice.

Depending on the type of physical contact involved during a sexual assault offense, samples collected from a suspect's body may carry greater probative value than samples collected from a victim's body. However, unlike forensic medical examinations for persons identified as victims of a sexual assault, no professional consensus exists for what constitutes a high-quality forensic medical examination standard for persons identified as suspects, or the accused. The purpose of this article is to explore underlying assumptions that may contribute to disparate practices and inequalities in the provision of forensic medical examinations for persons suspected of committing a sexual offense and persons identified as victims of a sexual offense.

Case series of sexual assault in older persons.

In this article, sexual assault of older persons is analyzed in a literature review and case series, and exemplar pseudocases of suspected older person sexual assault are discussed.