ALARMING RATES OF BITE INJURIES IN THE BRAZILIAN JURISPRUDENCE

Introduction: Physical violence became an important global problem in the last decades. This scenario is reflected in the increasing jurisprudence. In specific situations, perpetrators and victims of physical violence may inflict an especial patterned injury named bitemark. Knowing the case characteristics in lawsuits involving human bites and bitemarks is important to understand and encourage the role of Forensic Dentists as expert witness for bitemark analysis in Court. Objectives: The present study aimed to assess the jurisprudence to screen lawsuits that involve human bites and bitemarks in order to extract characteristics that could support research and practice of bitemark analysis. Material and methods: A systematic search was conducted in an open access jurisprudence system with the keywords “bite” and “bitemark”. Full-texts of lawsuits were selected and underwent data extraction.  Results: A total of 2488 lawsuits were detected, from which 1125 were eligible in the present study. The lawsuits dated between 1997 (n=13, 1.15%) and 2015 (n=202, 17.95%). Forensic expertises were performed in 641 (56.97%) lawsuits, but the identity of suspects was investigated only in 3 (0.26%) cases.  Conclusions: An increasing trend of lawsuits involving human bites and bitemarks was observed. Forensic Dentists must be aware of the current bitemark scenario as well the limitations inherent to bitemark analysis to face casework in the field. The present study provides evidence to encourage major education in bitemark analysis.