Family Violence in Canada

Family violence is a multifaceted problem in Canada. In the last 20 years, the majority of the provinces and territories have created legislation to address the issue (1). As of 2011, 26% of all crime in Canada was that of family violence with the majority of the victims being female (2). The economic impact in Canada is estimated to be $7.4 billion with over 80% of that cost falling to the victim (3). While the prosecution of these crimes is high, the conviction rate remains low (4). The pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury stated, “Bruises are a much neglected branch of injuries” (5). Given that 71% of the reported family violence cases are physical assaults, most of these victims will have bruises of various ages (6). In such cases, the documentation and dating of bruising could be valuable supporting evidence to victims’ testimony. This review serves to examine the progression of the science of dating bruises. The papers chosen for review outline said progression, including the reliability of the evidence.

The definition of a bruise was established by Sir Bernard Spilsbury as “a hurt or injury to the body by a blunt or heavy instrument causing discolouration but no laceration to the skin” (5). When the injury is sufficient to cause bleeding in the tissues near the skin, a bruise appears (5). The visual appearance of a bruise depends on a number of factors such as the colour of the skin, the area injured, the force applied to the injured area, the age and overall health of the victim and the medications and supplements taken by the victim (5). Thus, the determination of the age of a bruise must take into account these factors. Sir Bernard Spilsbury was the first pathologist to suggest applying the bruise age for ev...

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...and subcutaneous bruises. Int J Legal Med. January, 2000; 113(6):343–8.
8. Richard S. Forensic Science: From the Crime Scene to the Crime Lab. 2nd ed. New Jersey, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.; 2013.
9. Hughes VK, Ellis PS, Langlois NEI. The perception of yellow in bruises. J Clin Forensic Med. October, 2004; 11(5):257–9.
10. Mimasaka S, Ohtani M, Kuroda N, Tsunenari S. Spectrophotometric Evaluation of the Age of Bruises in Children: Measuring Changes in Bruise Color as an Indicator of Child Physical Abuse. Tohoku J Exp Med. 2010; 220(2):171–5.
11. Scafide KRN, Sheridan DJ, Campbell J, Deleon VB, Hayat MJ. Evaluating change in bruise colorimetry and the effect of subject characteristics over time. Forensic Sci Med Pathol. September, 2013; 9(3):367–76.
12. Sinha M. Family violence in Canada: A statistical profile, 2011: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics; 2013.