Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/yj flm The effect of range and ammunition type on fracture patterns in porcine postcranial flat bones Kleio Fragkouli a , Eyad Al Hakeem b , Ozgur Bulut c,* , Tal Simmons d a Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, University of Ioannina, Greece b International Committee of the Red Cross, Lebanon c Bioanthropology Unit, Invent Human, Germany d Department of Forensic Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Forensic anthropology Shooting distance Gunshot trauma Expanding bullet Full metal jacketed ammunition Postcranial flat bones ABSTRACT Pig half-carcasses were shot in scapulae, ribs and mandibles with either 0.243 hunting rifle using high velocity expanding ammunition (N = 30) or AK47 using full metal jacketed (FMJ) ammunition (N = 12) from a range of either 5 or 20 m. Fracture patterns related to distance of fire and ammunition type were compared on de-fleshed, macerated, and reconstructed bones. For expanding ammunition, location of fracture on ribs affected the re- sulting pattern. Scapulae shot from 5 m presented a comminuted pattern different from those shot from 20 m. Mandibles shot from 20 m showed a characteristic radiating pattern at entrance with the opposite ramus un- fractured; those shot from 5 m exhibited fractures to both rami. Using decision tree analysis provided accuracies of 93.8% for scapulae and 87.5% for mandibles. For FMJ, no distance dependent fracture differences were apparent in any bone. Decision tree analysis facilitated the interpretation of fracture patterns caused by pro- jectile trauma. 1. Introduction Firearm related fatalities, resulting from armed conflicts, homicides, suicides, and accidents, have increased over the past century bringing the study of wound ballistics into the core of interest for forensic and clinical research. Data from Europe demonstrate that 31% of firearm related hunting accidents between 1961 and 1992, both fatal and non- fatal, were inflicted by high velocity rifle ammunition 1 and rifles were involved in hunting accident fatalities. 2–5 Although the use of rifles in homicide cases is less common, data from the Federal Bureau of In- vestigation (FBI) reveal that there were 1847 cases involving rifles among the 46,313 homicides in the United States in a 5 year period (2007–2011). 6 Unfortunately, whilst ca. 4% of these homicides in- volved rifles, no further breakdown was provided by the FBI regarding the type of rifle or the type of ammunition used (caliber, centerfire or rimfire, full jacketed or soft pointed). Despite the frequency of firearm inflicted injuries, both those resulting in fatality and otherwise, there is a paucity of published literature concerning the effect of both high velocity expanding and full-jacketed bullets on the skeleton. The damage inflicted by firearms is related to both the type of weapon used and the type of ammunition it fires, specifically to the amount of kinetic energy transmitted by the bullet to the tissues. 7 The greater the energy imparted by the weapon, the more extensive the damage produced on the body parts. Military projectiles are full-metal jacketed (FMJ), meaning that they are covered by a hard metal resistant to expansion, 7 whereas expanding (or soft-point) ammunition is de- signed to mushroom or break, shedding small pieces of its lead core when it impacts a rigid surface, such as a bone. In the military context, the use of expanding bullets was prohibited in international warfare as stated in the Hague Declaration 1899. 8 This limitation aimed to reduce the combatants' excessive suffering from the effect of expanding pro- jectiles. Hence, cases where the use of prohibited ammunition resulted in combatants' death would constitute violations of International Hu- manitarian Law (IHL). Such cases may be encountered in the context of anthropological analyses of skeletal remains in post-conflict environ- ments 9 where suspected violations of IHL are being investigated. On the other hand, injuries caused by rifle-fired full metal jacketed bullets are commonly seen in military armed conflicts. 7 In some countries, ex- panding bullets may be legally used both by police in law enforcement and by civilians in self-defense to stop an assailant and prevent col- lateral injury; in hunting, they are used when it is desirable to im- mobilize the game quickly. 7,10,11 To date, very limited research has been published concerning the effect of the expanding bullets on bones or artificial tissue http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2017.10.004 Received 14 February 2017; Received in revised form 20 April 2017; Accepted 3 October 2017 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: ozgur.bulut@yahoo.com (O. Bulut). Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine 53 (2018) 1–12 Available online 05 October 2017 1752-928X/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. MARK