6 ECTS credits
150 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 4000673ENW for working students in the 2nd semester at a (E) Master - advanced level.

Semester
2nd semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Impossible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Enrollment Requirements
NOTE: registration for this course is only possible for working students. Day students can register for courses whose code ends with an R. At Inschrijven / studentenadministratie@vub.be you must be registered at the VUB as a working student for the current academic year.
Taught in
Dutch
Faculty
Faculty of Law and Criminology
Department
Criminology
Educational team
Dirk Van Varenbergh (course titular)
Activities and contact hours
39 contact hours Lecture
12 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
90 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content
  1. Introduction to legal medicine
  2. Clinical forensic medicine (child abuse en neglect, physical violence against adults, sexual agression, forensic medicine and driving)
  3. Death investigation
  4. Crime scene investigation
  5. The forensic autopsy: external and internal examination
  6. Postmortem identification
  7. Thanatology (algor mortis, hypostasis, rigor mortis, decomposition)
  8. Thanato-etiology

   a. Asphyxia (suffocation, smothering, throttling, strangulatie by ligature, hanging, traumatic asphyxia, drowning, carbon monoxide poisoning)
   b. The pathology of wounds (sharp force trauma, blunt force trauma, gunshot trauma)
   c. Death by elektrocution, death by hypothermia, fire deaths
   d. Death from intoxication
   e. Sudden and unexpected death (adults and infants)

  1. Criminalistics (introduction, collection and interpretation of trace evidence, crime scene management, dactyloscopy, blood stain, forensic odontology, ballistics, forensic hematogenetics)
Course material
Digital course material (Required) : PowerPoint presentaties
Digital course material (Required) : Documentatie, Canvas
Handbook (Recommended) : Handboek Forensisch Onderzoek, De mogelijkheden van het forensisch onderzoek, Van Varenberg, Dirk, Politeia, 9782509035974, 2019
Digital course material (Required) : Inleiding tot de criminalistiek
Digital course material (Required) : Gerechtelijke Geneeskunde
Additional info
  • The lectures are illustrated by PowerPoint presentations containing many illustrations and pictures.
  • A course book is made available to students.
  • Additional information can be found on PointCarré.
  • Recommended literature: Handboek Forensisch Onderzoek (uitgeverij Politeia).
Learning Outcomes

General competencies

The aim of the lectures is to provide the student a source of basic knowledge about forensic medicine (clinical forensic medicine and forensic pathology), forensic odontology and forensic examination of trace evidence. This includes mainly the study of different forms of physical aggression against victims. The student will understand by this way the morphologic changes due to different forms of violence.
This knowledge provides the student to use it in a medico-legal context in particular in questions of timing of death, post-mortem identification, cause of death, mechanism of death, manner of death, collection and examination of biological trace evidence,…

During the lectures, given by PowerPoint presentations, the student will be confronted with the possibilities of forensic medicine and related fields, but also with the limits of the forensic investigation. The different topics will be illustrated by many images.

I hope that the student will become aware of the scientific approach regarding the forensic investigation of a crime scene and the forensic examination of a victim. This scientific approach will lead to a critical attitude towards the results of such investigations. However, such approach must always be performed with respect for the living or death victim.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Examen Schriftelijk with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Written exam.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Psychology: Profile Profile Work and Organisational Psychology (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Psychology: Profile Profile Clinical psychology (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Psychology: Afstudeerrichting arbeids- en organisatiepsychologie (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Adult Education: Profile Social Studies (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Criminology: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Biomedical Sciences: Management and Business (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Biomedical Sciences: Clinical Biomedical Sciences (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Biomedical Research: Standaard traject
Master of Teaching in Health Sciences: standaard traject (120 ECTS, Etterbeek) (only offered in Dutch)