The importance of outliers in forensic practice

Forensic pathologists and practitioners are well aware of the number of unique or unusual cases that are not infrequently seen in a busy medicolegal practice. Unfortunately the importance of isolated cases is sometimes dismissed by those who feel that such outliers merely skew datasets and provide nothing useful in terms of analyses. Applying a statistical approach to forensic observations does, however, run the risk of losing quite valuable information that assists in understanding mechanisms and outcomes of disease and injury. Data derived from randomised controlled trials and observational studies should not be mutually exclusive as a single outlier may give much clearer understanding of possible pathophysiological mechanisms than a group of more mainstream cases. Clearly both have their uses in contributing to the literature and in helping to evaluate and analyse cases.