Criminal corpse dismemberment in Hamburg, Germany from 1959 to 2016

Abstract

Cases of corpse dismemberment are rare, but occur most frequently in urban agglomerations. A distinction is made between defensive and offensive corpse dismemberment. This systematic review retrospectively assesses the phenomenology of 51 cases of corpse dismemberment (30 defensive and 21 offensive), which occurred in a period of 57 years and were subject to medico-legal autopsies performed at the Departement of Legal Medicine in Hamburg, Germany. The victims’ gender ratio was 1.7:1 female to male. In most cases, the perpetrators were middle-aged men from the close social environment, who had no psychiatric primary illnesses, no experience in the medical sector, and had not worked professionally as a butcher. In 80% of the cases it was possible to establish the cause of death; the most frequent cause was injuries sustained through sharp force (15 cases). The cases are discussed within the context of the existing international literature on corpse dismemberment.