Legal medical identification of cases with suspicion: survey of perícias of the Legal Medical Institute of São Paulo, in the decade of 90

Abstract

The authors had carried through the survey of cases of legal medical identification, with suspicion of being determined person, analyzed for the Nucleus of Anthropology of the Legal Medical Institute of the State of São Paulo, in the period of January of 1990 the December of 2000. The survey was carried through the legal findings medical with the objective to get given on this type of skill, practically inexistent in literature, as well as verifying the factors that had influenced in the identification or not of this type of case. Results: the total number of cases was of 169, being that 125 (73,06%) were bodies in decomposition or skeletons and 44 (26,03%) carbonized. In relation to the cause of death in 93 (55,35%) it was not possible to establish the death cause and in 39 (23,21%) the death occurred due to brain injury. The identification resulted positive in 81 cases (47,9%), using the odontologic methods in 39 cases (60%), genetic in 13 (20%), anthropologic in 9 (13,84%) and fingerprints in 4 cases (6,15%). In 88 cases (52,07%) it was not possible conclusive result, attributing this to it the absence of confrontation elements, which were present in 82 cases (93,18%). Conclusion: the legal medical identification depends on confrontation elements, supplied, mainly for the familiar ones, without which it is not possible to get a positive result in the skill of legal medical identification.