A Cross Sectional Autopsy based Study of Homicidal Deaths in  Vijayapura, Karnataka

Authors

Homicide, blunt weapons, murder, autopsy.

Introduction: Homicide is heinous crime and it is one of the oldest crimes in human civilization. Homicidal

pattern vary from country to country and from one region to another, and are influenced by many factors

like commonly available weapons, methods of killing, etc. In the present day world violence is clearly

recognized as a global public health problem. The total number of murders recorded all over India in 2010

was 33,335 and in 2011 were 34,305. Materials and Methods: 2 year autopsy based study conducted in

Vijayapura. All homicidal cases brought to the department for medico legal autopsy and also the cases which

were later registered as homicide were studied. Detailed information regarding the circumstances of crime

was sought from the police, victim’s relatives and friends, visits to the scene of occurrence or deduced by

the photographs of the scene of occurrence. The alleged weapons that were produced in the respective cases

were examined and opined. Results: Among 67 cases, 43 (46.18%) were male and 24 (53.82%) were female.

Most commonly affected victims were from 21 – 30 years age group. Large number of cases occurred in

streets. The blunt injuries were most common 31(46.27%) to cause death.

Siva Kumar V1 , Tejas J1 , Shruthi. K. Sivakumar2

1 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Forensic Medicine, KMCHIHSR, Coimbatore, TN,

2 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Physiology, RVSIMS, Chittoor, AP