Vol. 2 No. 2 (1997)

Science and Technology Council of Turkey included The Bulletin of Legal Medicine in its index. Now, the Bulletin has an opportunity to reach you via network inside the Council pages. At the beginning of the publication, this was the first obstacle of us. Achievement at the half of second year is encouraging. We are delighted to share this honour with you. The Bulletin has a new section called “File”. We are inviting you to share your experience and perspectives in the new section. The midterm report of a training project and National and International Attitudes Towards the Post-graduate Certification of Forensic Medicine, Post-graduate Curriculum of Forensic Medicine, Forensic Medicine Boards have been published in the first two “File”, in this issue. The project, Training of General Practitioner in Forensic Medicine, has been coordinated by Turkish Medical Association and The Society of Forensic Medicine Specialists. Aims of the project were promoting sensitivity and awareness in Human Rights issues. European. Council has supported this national project financially. Human Rights will be the next to be discussed in the new section “File”. We have renewed the publication process, enable to publish the issues of the Bulletin of Legal Medicine in precise time. The times for peer-reviewing and also author’s corrections are limited. The postal delays have taken into consideration in decision of the period. Adli Tıp Bülteni The member in publication committee has changed. We wish to thank to our colloquies’ works in the previous publication committee. New bloods have come to the Publication Committee by our new joint members. We congratulate them and wish successful team work. Please note the new address of the Bulletin. Please use our new address for all communications. New Address: Doç.Dr. Şevki Sözen Medical School of Istanbul 34390 Capa - Istanbul Turkey Serpil Salaçin Editör EDITORIAL Summer 1997 ended leaving a great prospect for me. It was full of professional tastes. Meeting old friends and new colloquies was the best refreshment for me. I would like to share with you some aspects of my visits to UK. It lasted 8 weeks. I appreciated to the British Council for excellent arrangement of program and supporting me by a grand. The British Council International Seminar held in Durham. “The Second International Seminar on Advancing the Scientific Investigation of Crime” (Reference 97021) held in Durham, on 6 to 18 July 1997. I have invaluable experiences during the seminar. It was not only related to the scientific approaches but also cultural, historic and traditional tastes. Twenty five countries were represented by forty five participants. It was a pleasure to meet the persons coming from different part of the world with varies experiences, share the unique problems on the discussing topics. I have tried to give my brief comment on the scientific part of the events. I would like to give my impressions in five main topics. 1. Modern Policing and Forensic Sciences; The importance and the place of the Forensic Scientists in achievement to the basic human needs were discussed deeply. It was not a new perspective but it was impressive to see how many persons share the same idea. 2. Scientific Support Department; The roles and the expecting structures of the scientific support departments for Forensic Sciences were evaluated by most of the lecturers and the participants. This was kind of wish for many countries, even partly for UK. The topic has motivating power for all of us. 3. Scene of Crime; The importance and the necessity of Crime Scene Investigation were noticed and it was defined as a key for the prevention of the violence and the main source for reliable evidences. It is obvious that this fact accepted widely but applied scarcely to the daily life in most country like in Turkey. During our professional life we try to explain this reality to our community and the members of our professions but it is still not accepted bravely. It is unbelievable but sometimes these ideas called as an utopia. 4. Specialist; The importance and the necessity of the varies specialists were strongly mentioned. Training methods and the quality of them discussed. Qualification of the specialists and relation with the quality of the scene investigation discussed. 5. Investigative Aids; It was very important part of the seminar. It was the time to meet computer based investigation, databases for DNA, foot wear, offender profiling etc. Every topic has related computer science lectures and show. It helped most of us to try to reach the dimensions of sciences. 6. Facilities: The most valuable facilities that we have all participants and the lecturers prepared detailed future readings materials reflect immense works. LCD projectors, video shows and hand- outs were excellent. Workshops and visiting computer centers were changed our perspective while we felt our selves familiar on these immense high technology. The next stop was visiting University of Dundee. Ten days stay in Dundee and visit the Department of Forensic Medicine in University of Dundee was great pleasure for me. It was exceptional opportunity to spend such a short period with Professor Pounder and his colloquies. My visit also was excellent incident to review our last collaboration on continuing education. We searched for new areas for future partnership. Agreements on creating proposals for training and research programs were invaluable. The richness of the library in the department is fascinating. I also have a chance to spend some time with his research assistants. Let me introduce you some of the young research assistants in his team. Briefly. Ph.D. Student Xing-Xang-Deng was at the final term in his thesis. It is about the new methods to find out quantity of hair and urine levels of the steroids in evaluation some kind of drug addicts. Ph.D. Student Claire Woodfield, she was working to modify atomic absorption methods in measuring the strontium levels in drowning cases. Ph.D. Student Collin A.S. Senevirante has still continued to add new quantifying methods for Forensic Entomo-toxicology. He has worked on measurement of Paraquat and its metabolites in larvae taken from the putrefied bodies. Law Ph.D. Student Reacheel Izard, she has reviewed excessive amount of references on Human Rights to pay great attention. Her approach to Human Rights’ issues and proposals on training methods for law and medical students promised for the future of human dignity. I have also astonished by professor Pounder and his family’s hospitality. They introduced me to the local culture and history. Dr. Mike Baxter, the head of the Forensic Laboratories in Dundee Police Department, was very kind and experienced scientist. Their available facilities and daily activities and the applied procedures are breath taking. He invited experienced Turkish scientists for short-term visit, minimum three months, for advance training programs and short term studies in Forensic Serology. I would like to write for you my next visiting stops to University of Teessidej, University of Leeds, University of Derby and some Departments of London University. I wish I could give you some idea about my visit. I am open to give every kind of documents to my colloquies if they are interested. Please do not hesitate to write me. Serpil Salaçin Editor My personal communication address: Professor of Forensic Medicine, Head of The Dept, of Forensic Medicine, Medical Faculty, University of Dokuz Eylül, 35340 Izmir, Turkey Tel: 90 232 277 7777 Fax: 90 232 2590541