Citation

Nadar S, Sultana F, Rana PA, Khokhar JI, Rana SP. Medical forum monthly 2016; 27(6): 14-18.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The main objective of Medico-legal autopsy is to find out the cause of death but it also helps in finding the manner of death. From this we also find out the criminal behavior of the society and usage of different kinds of weapons related with the cause of death and particularly the types of fire-arm weapons which is more in concern with the present study. This study was especially conducted to find out the predominance of rifled fire-arms weapons amongst all fire-arm deaths. Study Design: Observational/descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Department of Forensic medicine & Toxicology K.E.M.U. Lahore during the period of 2006-2008.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study includes 2979 medico-legal autopsies. The information was gathered from post-mortem reports, police documents and hospital records. Not only the kind of weapon was studied but all other parameters were taken into consideration like, cause & manner of death, sex, age, season and areas of injuries on the body.

RESULTS: The analysis quite distinctly highlighted that amongst 2979 deaths 1285 were because of fire-arms weapons (43.13%). Out of these 1192 (92%) deaths were by rifled weapons, whereas 103 (8%) were by smooth bored fire-arm weapons. Total number of male deaths by fire-arms was 1066 (82.95%), whereas females were 219 (17.05%).All homicidal cases were 788, 46 suicidal, 97 accidental and in 354 the manner remained un-determined. The manner amongst males was, 652 homicidal, 42 suicidal, 82 accidental and in 290 it was un-determined. And in females 136 were homicidal, 4 were suicidal, 15 accidental and in 64 the manner remained un-determined. The ratio of homicidal to suicidal was 17.1:1 and homicidal to accidental ratio was 8.1:1. In 92% cases the rifled fore-arms weapons was used and in 8% it was smooth bored. The rifled fire-arms injuries had multiple entry wounds in 52.9% of deaths and there was single entry wound in 47% deaths. While there was single entry wound in 66% deaths in smooth bored weapons and in 34% of cases multiple wounds were observed. The range of fire in (56.8%) homicidal deaths was distant, whereas in 30.4% it was close range. Close contact fire was seen in 1.4% of suicidal deaths. 16% cases showed blackening, 10.58% cases had tattooing and in 2.25% cases there was burning.

CONCLUSION: The fire-arms weapon is the most predominant mean of un-natural deaths. Amongst them the usage of rifled weapons is more than the smooth bored. So this needs formulation of effective law for control of these weapons.

Language: en

Keywords

adult; human; Homicide; homicide; suicide; Suicide; child; female; male; autopsy; Manner of death; cause of death; firearm; controlled study; sex ratio; medicolegal aspect; medical record; middle aged; Article; observational study; Kind of weapon; Rifled; Smooth bored