Domestic violence claims frequently arise in child custody and parental rights proceedings. The Forensic Panel’s emergency medicine physicians are most experienced in evaluating signs of abuse such as fingernail markings, pattern injuries, bruises, bite marks, scalp injuries, burns, and signs of strangulation. Our expert physicians have extensive experience in interviewing victims of abuse and additionally assess the situation for the immediate safety of the victim.
In child abuse cases an emergency medicine physician will decipher the significance of various types of fractures, bone healing, burns, bruising, central nervous system trauma, head and abdominal trauma, as well as specimens collected for STD screening. Signs of negligence and psychological abuse are also taken into account by the emergency medicine expert when assessing a victim of child abuse.
Given the occasional manipulation of abuse charges and countercharges, The Forensic Panel’s peer-review system accounts for blind spots in the assessment, identifies and minimizes sources of bias, and keeps sometimes dramatic cases on the evidence and its relevance to scientific understandings of the assessment of domestic and child abuse.