Description

Wound Identification for the First Responder is a 2.25-hour online course built for patrol officers, detectives, and investigators who document injuries at crime scenes and death investigations. Accurately identifying wound type, mechanism, and cause is foundational to determining manner of death, corroborating or challenging witness accounts, and building a case that holds up in court.

Wounds tell a story. This course teaches you how to read it.

What You Will Cover

Contusions

Mechanism of injury, appearance, pattern recognition, and how to identify patterned contusions that link to a specific object or weapon. Includes documentation guidance and evidence considerations.

Abrasions

Types of abrasions, how they form, what they reveal about the direction and nature of force, and how to preserve and document trace evidence associated with abrasion injuries.

Blunt Force Trauma

How blunt force produces different injury patterns depending on the object, the force applied, and the surface struck. Includes what injuries may and may not look like and how to avoid misidentification at the scene.

Lacerations

Full and partial thickness lacerations, improvised versus weaponized objects, and how to identify contact evidence on or around the wound. Distinguishing lacerations from incised wounds in the field.

Incised Wounds and Stab and Chop Wounds

Wound characteristics, mechanism, and underlying injury potential for incised wounds, stab wounds, and chop wounds. How blade type and force affect the wound profile.

Gunshot Wounds

Entrance and exit wounds, contact shots, intermediate range indicators, trajectory, and associated evidence including projectiles and casings. What caliber and range tell you and what they do not.

Certificate of completion upon finishing. Direct complement to RTI’s Death and Decomposition and Homicide and Death Investigations courses. 2.25 hours. Idaho POST-certified. Online, self-paced.