Dissecting Violence. Autopsy, Medical Expertise and Criminal Justice in Early Modern Flanders

Abstract

Abstract Drawing on a sample of 875 forensic medical reports produced within the early modern County of Flanders, this contribution aims to analyse and explain some developments in the medico-legal discourse of violent crime. While sixteenth-century post-mortem reports essentially deal with assessing the lethality of wounds, later centuries witnessed a more elaborate approach to violent death, in which attempts were made to establish the relationship between a wound and fatality by reconstructing its pathology. In this way, medical expertise contributed to a more nuanced qualification of violent crime, thoroughly influencing judicial decision-making by bringing new attenuating circumstances into play, while adhering to a cautious empiricist epistemology. This cautiousness also constituted one of the weaknesses of the reports, making their content vulnerable to criticism by judicial officials whose primary concern was to resolve homicide cases.