Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine

The Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine provides a forum for the rapid publication of topical articles on all clinical aspects of forensic medicine and closely related specialities. The Journal carries definitive reviews, original communications, hypotheses, learning points of important issues, offering critical analysis and scientific appraisal. All submissions are peer-reviewed by at least two independent reviewers, and the Journal is listed in MEDLINE/Index Medicus.

The recent increase in the volume of articles submitted in 2019/20 means the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine has the second highest submission rate in the Elsevier family of forensic journals after Forensic Science International. We are proud that submissions are from a breadth of geographical areas, and although both citations and downloads are increasing the Editor has decreased the time taken to make decisions and get work published online.

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All aspects of the medical principles of care and forensic assessment of individuals in contact with the judicial system are examined and the journal has a broad international perspective.

Topics covered in the journal include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following, particularly within the clinical setting:

Forensic medicine training, forensic medicine national systems
Healthcare in police and prison custody, death in custody and restraint injuries
Death investigation and causes of death
Suicide, para-suicide and deliberate self-harm
Child abuse and neglect
Interpersonal violence, assault and injury, personal injury, elder abuse, domestic violence
Sexual assault
Human rights when involving refugee and asylum medicine
Traffic and transportation medicine
Drug and alcohol misuse, drink and drug driving
Medical law and medical negligence

Volume/Issue Projected Mail Dates

114/C 29 Aug 2025

115/C 23 Oct 2025

116/C 01 Dec 2025

Child abuse and neglect
Interpersonal violence, assault and injury, personal injury, elder abuse, domestic violence
Sexual assault
Suicide, parasuicide, and deliberate self-harm
Restraint injuries
Drug and alcohol misuse, drink and drug driving
Traffic medicine, transportation medicine, refugee and asylum medicine
Medical law and medical negligence
Mass disaster
Torture
Extra-judicial deaths
Human rights

Meet the Editor-in-Chief

Michael D Freeman MedDr, PhD, MScFMS, MPH, FRCPath, FFFLM, FRSPH, FACE, DLM

Dr. Freeman divides his time between medicolegal consulting and academic duties. He is a tenured associate professor of forensic medicine and epidemiology at Maastricht University Medical Center (NL), and affiliate professor of forensic psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine. He served as the David Jenkins Professor and Chair of forensic and legal medicine with the Royal College of Physicians (London), in the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine (FFLM) for 2024-5, as well as the chair of research for the FFLM. Dr. Freeman is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, the FFLM, the Royal Society for Public Health, and the American College of Epidemiology, among others.

Dr. Freeman’s research interests are focused on forensic applications of epidemiologic methods and data to quantify cause of injury, death, and disease relationships using repeatable and systematic methods. Other interests include traffic crash-related injury epidemiology and biomechanics, death in custody, orthopedic applications of adult autologous stem cells, the latent effects of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, among others, and has published around 230 scientific papers, books, and book chapters.

Dr. Freeman holds a doctor of medicine degree from Umeå University in Sweden, a Ph.D. and master’s in public health and epidemiology from Oregon State University, and a master’s of forensic medical sciences with the University of Verona (IT) and the Academy for Forensic Medical Sciences in the UK, among others. He completed a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship in forensic pathology through Umeå University and the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner and is a past US Fulbright Fellow with the U.S. Department of State in the area of forensic medicine.

Dr. Freeman has provided medicolegal expert testimony more than 1,500 times in a wide variety of civil and criminal cases in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe.

Michael Freeman, can receive your queries via emailing forensic.medicine@fflm.ac.uk.

Emeritus Editor in Chief

Dr Wilma Duijst, Maastricht University, Netherlands

Associate Editors

Dr Wendy Birch, University of College London, UK

Dr Tristan Krap, Maastricht University, Netherlands