foren-, fore- +

1. A science and practice that deals with applications of engineering and construction facts and scientific methods of a variety of construction and legal problems.
2. The investigation of materials, products, structures or components that fail or do not operate or function as intended.

The purpose of a forensic engineering investigation is to locate the cause or causes of failure with a view to improve performances or the life of the various components.

The examination of insects in, on, and around human remains to assist in determining the time or location of death.

Medicolegal forensic entomology includes arthropod involvement (mostly necrophagous or corpse-eating) involving events such as murder, suicide and rape, but also includes physical abuse and contraband trafficking.

In murder investigations, it is concerned with where and when insects lay eggs; and in what order they appear in dead bodies. This can be helpful in determining the time or post mortem interval and location of the death being investigated.

Examination and analysis of scientific evidence from a crime scene.

The branch of genetics that deals with the application of genetic knowledge to legal problems and legal proceedings.

Forensic genetics is also a branch of forensic medicine which more broadly investigates the application of medical knowledge that were applicable to legal matters.

This is not a new field. Long before the era of DNA fingerprinting investigators used blood grouping, HLA typing, and other tests of genetic markers in blood to try to determine who did it (and, more often, who did not do it).

1. The branch of medical science that uses medical knowledge for legal purposes.
2. A branch of medicine that interprets or establishes medical facts in civil or criminal law cases.
3. The application of medical knowledge to questions of civil and criminal law; especially, in court proceedings; also known as, "medical jurisprudence".

The process of reconstructing weather events for a certain location.

This is done by acquiring local weather reports, radar and satellite images, and eyewitness accounts.

Forensic meteorology is most often used in court cases for use by insurance companies or for a murder investigation.

A branch of medicine concerned with determining the cause of deaths usually for civil or criminal law cases.

The forensic pathologist performs autopsies to determine the cause of a death; such as, examining a bullet wound to the head, exsanguination, strangulation, etc. and the manner of a death (including homicide, accident, natural, or suicide).

Forensic pathologists also work closely with the coroner (England and Wales) or medical examiner (United States). The examination of dead bodies (autopsy or post mortem) is a subset of anatomical pathology.

Forensic pathologists are often also known as forensic medical examiners or police surgeons.

1. The use of psychiatric knowledge and techniques in questions of law to determine legal insanity.
2. Psychiatry in its legal aspects including criminology, penology, commitment of mentally ill, the psychiatrist's role in compensation cases, the problems of releasing information to the court, and of expert testimony.

1. The application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to the legal system.

This may be in relation to a crime or to a civil action.

2. Of or belonging to a court of law; judcial.

In 1659, it was a shortened form of an earlier forensical.

3. The art or study of formal debate; argumentation; rhetorical.

A branch of medicine concerned with determining the cause of death, the examination of injuries due to crime and negligence, and the examination of tissue samples relevant to crimes.

Any testimony of expert scientific, engineering, economic or of any other specialized nature used to assist the court and the lawyers in a lawsuit or prosecution.

The use of toxicology to aid a medicolegal investigation of death and poisoning.

Many toxic substances do not produce characteristic lesions, so if a toxic reaction is suspected, visual investigation may not provide an adequate deduction.

A forensic toxicologist must consider the context of an investigation, in particular any physical symptoms recorded, and any evidence collected at a crime scene that may narrow the search; such as, pill bottles, powders, trace residue, and any available chemicals.

Provided with this information and samples with which to work, the forensic toxicologist must determine which toxic substances are present, in what concentrations, and the probable effect of those chemicals on the human subject being investigated.

1. A dense growth of trees, plants, and underbrush covering a large area.
2. Something that resembles a large, dense growth of trees, as in density, quantity, or profusion: "New York is a forest of skyscrapers."
3. A defined area of land formerly set aside in England as a royal hunting ground.
4. Usually considered a learned borrowing from Late and Medieval Latin forestem silvam, the "outside woods".

The sense is generally taken to refer to "the woods lying outside the walls of a park, those that are not fenced in", from Latin foris, "outside"; literally, "out of doors", from a lost noun fora, related to foris "door", and altered from fura.

Forest originally meant "the forest depending on the king's court of justice". Middle Latin forestis derives from Latin forum, "pubic place", used in its Middle Latin sense "court of justice".

The planting of trees or forests.

An area that has been planted with trees.