Simpson's Forensic Medicine

Originally written by Keith Simpson and carried forward in its later editions by Bernard Knight, Simpson's Forensic Medicine has been a core reference for police surgeons, forensic pathologists, and law students for generations. Covers the forensic investigation of death and injury, the medico-legal handling of evidence, and the expert-witness role.

Chapters move from the medico-legal organisation of death investigation through the post-mortem examination, the identification of human remains, and the patterns of injury that follow blunt and sharp force, firearms, asphyxia, thermal injury, drowning and poisoning. Sections on sexual offences, child abuse, traffic medicine and mass-fatality planning give the volume the working scope of a Home Office pathologist's caseload.

Bernard Knight inherited Simpson's single-author textbook after a long career as a Home Office pathologist and Professor of Forensic Pathology at Cardiff, and later editions reflect the absorption of DNA identification, traffic medicine and updated forensic science methodology into the British forensic-medicine curriculum.