KANKA PANDITA
With the ongoing increase in criminalization of our society, urgent need to know the subject of forensic medicine has became an indispensible part of our socio medical living system. Exponential rise in medico legal cases besides increase in medical negligence due to rapid increase in various types of crimes completely expose our public apathy which gets further exploited due to lack of awareness about basics of forensic medicine, even among our educated community.
WORLD FORENSIC MEDICINE DAY
This lack of knowledge and application of forensic medicine by most of its stakeholders like Judiciary, Law enforcing authorities, Investigation agencies, Medical fraternity not only Detroit the quality of our healthcare mechanism but also adversely affects our existing criminal justice system which completely disturbs our socio economic balance.
Creating mass awareness by celebrating World Forensic Medicine Day is one such step in this direction. Although National Medical Commission ( NMC ) has pre attempted this concept by introducing Forensic Medicine as mandatory subject at medical education level but it requires equal attention by various line departments like social welfare , health , education and other related departments to create its much needed awareness and generate sufficient knowledge about this subject.
Forensic Medicine , also known as Forensic Pathology in medical terminology and Legal Medicine in Judicial vocabulary, coined by Thomas Stuart , dates back to 19th Century. Courses like Forensic Chemistry and Forensic Biology having symbiotic relationship with this chapter of education involves the application of medical knowledge and its techniques to investigate the crime and its legal consequences. Subject of Forensic Medicine deals with the examination and assessment of individuals who have been, or are suspected to have been – injured or killed by any external or internal influence that has both medical and legal implications. Basically if the branch of medicine dealing with the practical application of medical know how to establish the facts in civil or criminal legal jurisprudence for investigation in to the cause and suspicious of injury or death for the purpose of law and administration of justice.
Forensic Medicine can also be termed as Forensic Social Work as it involves the application of social work principles and practices in legal, criminal and civil contests of our justice system. It focuses on the intersection of law and mental health as it systematically assess the individuals accused of crime, evaluate their mental health, provide expert testimony in courts and finally provide counseling and other rehabilitation services to the victims and offenders. By virtue of their experience and exposure on physiological effects of crime in victims and offenders, Trained Forensic Social Workers are also involved in the development of public policy related to mental wellness and criminal justice thus play an important role in building vibrant social fabric. The specialty of Forensic Social Worker goes far beyond the medical clinics and psychiatric hospitals and ensure proper juvenile and adult justice services, needed corrections and mandated treatments.
Due to significant impact of Forensic Medicine on our criminal justice system, this education not only plays an important role in civil and criminal investigations through scientifically proven accurate and reliable evidence but also generates an in depth insight in to the nature and cause of crime, be it a homicide, suicide, accidental or natural death. The path and process of Forensic medicine not only reduces the time taken during investigation and delivery of justice but is equally cost effectiveness and amply resourceful. The accuracy of evidence and investigation is the most important benefit of Forensic Medicine, the awareness of which need to be percolated down to masses in order to strengthen our socio medical justice system besides safeguarding our personal interests too.
(The author a freelancer, is pursuing MBBS at NCR – Delhi).