Death Due to Domestic Violence in Imphal: A Retrospective Study of 10 Years

Abstract

Introduction: Death due to domestic violence is an issue throughout the country and the worldand Manipur is not an exception. Violence ranges from mental torture to physical and ultimatelyto death. Victims are man to man, man to women and women to men but the majority of cases,women are the most sufferers along with morbidity and mortalities. This retrospective analysis istargeted to dig out the actual scenario of the state.Objective: To find out the socio-demographic profile of domestic violence death cases, differentmode of killing, motives, patterns of injuries & cause of death etc.Materials and Methods: A descriptive retrospective autopsy based study of deaths due to domesticviolence is conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Regional Institute of MedicalSciences, Imphal Manipur during the period from the year 2004 to 2013.Results: In this study a total of 61 cases of domestic violence deaths out of 4313 cases of postmortemduring the study period is analysed in various medico-legal aspects. The maximum deaths wereamong males and reported against the 2nd & 3rd decade’s age group and land disputes and personalviolence were the common reason for such fatalities.Conclusion: The study has demonstrated that deaths out of domestic violence are of increasingtrend in all format of society all over the state. Strict legislation and appropriate implementationexisting law and order is need of the hour and further laws are to be adopted to curb this menaceof the society is required.