Fatal Assault Research Articles

The Role of Witnesses in Prosecuting Cases of Fatal Assault: Legal and Sociological Perspectives

The act of physical assault is one of the persistent phenomena that is difficult to eradicate in society. Various acts of violence, such as physical abuse and battery, often result in injuries to the victim's body or body parts, and sometimes even lead to lifelong physical disabilities or, in severe cases, death. In criminal cases, witnesses hold a crucial position in determining prosecution, as they are considered lawful instruments. This study examines the role of witnesses in the prosecution of cases of fatal assault. The research method employed in this study is normative legal research, also known as doctrinal legal research or library-based legal research. This type of research is conducted by examining secondary data, including primary legal materials, secondary legal materials, and tertiary legal materials. Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that witnesses play a significant and pivotal role in uncovering the truth and facilitating prosecution. From both legal and sociological perspectives, the role of witnesses includes providing evidence, giving testimony, and supporting the public prosecutor. As such, it can be concluded that witnesses have an important role in prosecution, as stipulated in Article 184 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.

Epidemiologic Trends in Fatal and Nonfatal Firearm Injuries in the US, 2009-2017

Firearm injury research in the US has focused on fatal injuries. The incidence and epidemiologic factors associated with nonfatal firearm injuries are less understood. To evaluate estimates of incidence and trends over time of fatal and nonfatal firearm injuries. A cross-sectional, ecologic study was conducted using data throughout the US from 2009 to 2017. Data on fatal injuries from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were combined with national data on emergency department visits for nonfatal firearm injury from the Nationwide Emergency Department (ED) sample. Data analysis was conducted from August 2019 to September 2020. Firearm injuries identified with International Classification of Diseases external cause of injury codes and categorized by intent of injury, age group, and urban-rural location. Incidence, case fatality rate, and trends over time of firearm injury according to intent, age group, and urban-rural location. From 2009 to 2017, there was a mean of 85 694 ED visits for nonfatal firearm injury and 34 538 deaths each year. An annual mean of 26 445 deaths (76.6%) occurred outside of the hospital. Assault was the most common overall mechanism (38.9%), followed by unintentional injuries (36.9%) and intentional self-harm (19.6%). Self-harm, which accounted for 21 128 deaths (61.2%), had the highest case fatality rate (89.4%; 95% CI, 88.5%-90.4%), followed by assault (25.9%; 95% CI, 23.7%-28.6%) and legal intervention (23.4%; 95% CI, 21.6%-25.5%). Unintentional injuries were the most common nonfatal injuries (43 729 [51.0%]) and had the lowest case fatality rate (1.2%; 95% CI, 1.1%-1.3%). Self-harm deaths, 87.8% of which occurred outside the hospital, increased in all age groups in both rural and urban areas during the study period and were most common among people aged 55 years and older. The rate of fatal assault injuries was higher in urban than in rural areas (16.6 vs 9.0 per 100 000 per year) and highest among people aged 15 to 34 years (38.6 per 100 000 per year). Rates of unintentional injury were higher in rural than in urban areas (18.5 per 100 000 vs 12.4 per 100 000). In this cross-sectional study, suicide appears to be the most common cause of firearm injury death in the US, and most people who die from suicide never reach the hospital. These findings suggest that assaults and unintentional injuries account for most nonfatal and overall firearm injuries and for most of the injuries that are treated in hospitals.

The pattern of head and facial trauma associated with fatal blunt force assault

The pattern of head and facial trauma associated with fatal blunt force assault

Developing a Revised Typology of Child Homicide

The problem of child homicide continues to be of major concern to researchers, policy makers and child welfare advocates everywhere. In particular, there is debate around the fundamental issues of defining and classifying such deaths. Here, a revised typology of child homicide is developed, by way of an update of the categories of fatal assault first delineated in Lawrence (2004). Taking into consideration significant advances in the field over the past decade, the typology is based primarily upon the developmental stages of the child, with the concept of homicide as the extreme manifestation of aggregate violence and maltreatment also central. The problem is further placed into the context of (1) child death research and review, it being argued that child homicide should ideally be studied as a sub-set of the entire cohort of child deaths for a particular jurisdiction, and (2) child maltreatment generally, in that wherever practicable child homicide research should consider fatalities in conjunction with other serious or near-fatal cases of abuse and neglect.

Pattern of Fatal Cases of Assault Autopsied at Victoria Hospital

Assault is crime of attacking physically. Homicide by assault is killing of a human being by another human being using mechanical force. Assailants use various types of weapons depending upon their availability. A cross sectional study involving a total of 43 fatal cases of assault was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Victoria Hospital over a period of 1 year from Jan 2010 to Dec 2010. The most common age group of victims of fatal assault was 20-29 years (51.2%) followed by 30-39 years (23.3%). Grudge was the common motive for fatal assault in 51.2% cases. Male victims (83.7%) were commonly injured as compared to females (16.3%). Sharp weapons were commonly used by assailants in 74.4% cases. Language: en

Study of Weapons Related to Mechanical Injuries In Fatal Assault Cases Autopsied at Victoria Hospital

Weapons are instruments used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings. They are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of tasks such as in humans fighting, defence, the committing of criminal acts and the preserving of law and order. Weapons are employed individually or collectively either by single assailant or multiple assailants. Commonly knives, daggers, choppers, bamboo sticks are used to inflict injuries. A cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Victoria Hospital, Bengaluru over a period of 1 year from Jan 2010 to Dec 2010 to highlight the weapons examined related to mechanical injuries in fatal cases of assault autopsied. Single weapon was commonly used in 20 (46.51%) cases of assault. Face (67.44%) was most commonly injured. Sharp heavy weapons like choppers were commonly used in assault cases.

Homicide/suspicious death statistics for cases submitted to the forensic science laboratory in the Republic of Ireland for 2004–2008

The purpose of this study was to examine the trends and patterns of homicide in the Republic of Ireland over a five-year period (2004-2008). In total, 293 cases are covered in the survey. The majority of the victims were men. The most common age group of victims was 20-29 years old. The majority of the suspects were also men. The most common age was also 20-29 years old. Stabbing was the most common method used to kill and this often featured multiple wounds to the head and body. Shooting and blunt force traumas were also common. Homicides are more likely to occur over the weekend period. This study also explored the relationship between the suspect and the victim, the motive and the location of the fatal assault. In the majority of cases, the victim and the perpetrator were known to each other. The site of the fatal assault was most likely to be a residence and the most frequent motive was an argument/quarrelling. A small number of cases involved multiple fatalities, often involving relatives. The figures were compared with other international studies; our findings are broadly in agreement with them.

A retrospective review of homicides in Mangalore, South India

A five-year retrospective study of homicides was carried out to determine the profile of victims and the pattern of injuries sustained between 2001 and 2005 at Government District Wenlock Hospital, Mangalore, South India. Of the 89 victims of homicide, 71 were males and 18 were females. On an average, about 17 cases of fatal assault cases were autopsied each year. The commonest age group affected was the 21–30 age group (28.1%). The head was found to be the most common site of injury followed by the extremities, abdomen and chest. In 49.4% of the cases, the victims had sustained sharp force injuries while in 34.8% blunt force injuries were present. Fatal injuries to the head were the commonest cause of death. Homicide by strangulation was seen in 8 cases and involved mostly women. The incidence of homicidal burns was low ( n = 2, 2.2%). In 61.8% of the cases, death was immediate. In 52.8% of the cases the assailant(s) had a pre-planned motive for killing.

Profiles of Child Maltreatment Perpetrators and Risk for Fatal Assault: A Latent Class Analysis

This study examined characteristics and profiles of 196 child maltreatment perpetrators in Florida, including 126 who committed fatal assaults during 1999–2002. Results of logistic regression suggest that being a biologically unrelated caregiver is the strongest predictor of fatal child maltreatment. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to classify perpetrators, and three classes were identified: Biological Mothers with Health Problems, Male Perpetrators with Domestic Violence History, and Multiple-Problem Perpetrators. Results of LCA showed that compared to Biological Mothers with Health Problems, Multiple-Problem Perpetrators were seven times more likely and Male Perpetrators with Domestic Violence History were 12 times more likely to commit a fatal assault. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Bear attack—A unique fatality in Finland

Fatalities due to animal bites, the vast majority of which are associated with dogs and big cats, are relatively uncommon and rarely described in the literature. Especially rare are fatal bear attacks on humans. We herein present a forensic investigation of a fatal assault, involving numerous bites on a 42-year-old man in Finland by an European brown bear ( Ursus arctos arctos).

Inflicted ano-genital injuries in children : Physical abuse or sexual abuse?

The ano-genital findings of two young children who died as a result of inflicted head injury are reported. These injuries were severe enough to lead to an initial suspicion that sexual abuse had also occurred as part of the fatal assault. When further history was available, the injuries were found to be the result of inflicted physical injury.

Physical injury in young children: The differential diagnosis must include child abuse

Physical injury in young children: The differential diagnosis must include child abuse

Blood Feud and State Control: Differing Legal Institutions for the Remedy of Homicide During the Second and First Millennia B.C.E.

Since the discovery of the Laws of Hammurapi in December 1901–January 1902,1 the dependence of biblical law upon Mesopotamian law has been hotly debated. Among the most contentious issues is the abjudication of homicide, and the discussion has focused on particular odd cases in biblical law, such as an ox that gored or assault on a pregnant woman, that appear to have been borrowed from Mesopotamian law.2 The more common occurrences of fatal assault and the procedures to remedy them, however, have been largely ignored. What institutions insured that homicide was punished in biblical law, and what relationship did they have to Mesopotamian legal process? I will argue that the institutions that insured that a homicide would be investigated and remedied in biblical law were vastly different from those in Mesopotamian law and that the difference originates in disparate conceptions of the organization of society. Mesopotamian texts reflect the extensive involvement of the state in the process of remedying homicide. The members of the victim’s family participated in the process insofar as they had the right to make a claim on the slayer, but there does not seem to be any apprehension generated by the possibility of a blood avenger waiting to strike down the killer. By contrast, blood feud operated in biblical law, and places of sanctuary were needed to protect the killer. The textual evidence used in this study is wide-ranging. The legal material from the Bible is found in three mutually independent legal sources, Exod. 21:12–14, Num. 38:9–34, and Deut. 19:1–13, and in narrative texts. The legal sources do not have a common literary origin and originate in diverse historical and ideological/theological circumstances during the First Temple period.3 The cuneiform material from the rest of the ancient Near

Predicting Fatal Assault Among the Elderly Using the National Incident-Based Reporting System Crime Data

The elderly are a group susceptible to violent crime and injury because of their increased frailty, heightened fear of crime, and perception of vulnerability by themselves and others. However, limited information on elderly violence is available due to relatively low victimization rates in the United States. A logistic model was developed to predict survival following assault from different demographic and interpersonal factors for the elderly and the general population. Five years of data were obtained from the National Incident-Based Reporting System. Results show the elderly have a higher risk of death from assault than younger age groups and there is evidence of an excessively high risk of fatality in both felony-related and firearm-related assaults for younger and older victims. Assaults involving family/known persons were also associated with a higher fatality risk than incidents involving strangers. Suggestions are made for primary and secondary prevention strategies and issues to consider for future research.

Understanding fatal assault of children: a typology and explanatory theory

Fatal child assault, the deaths of children caused by the violent actions of another person, is the subject of this article. It is argued that the definition of the problem, its size and scope, is dependent on administrative social and legal categories. These phenomena encompass a range of situations. Although a child dies from violence in each incident, the social context within which these incidents occur is diverse. A typology of child fatal assaults is developed based on the research literature. Diverse explanatory theories have been offered to account for the problem of fatal assault of children. These paradigms concentrate on different aspects of the problem including the perpetrator (and their mental state or gender), the incident itself, and the social context of the incident (familial or not). It is argued that conceptualisation of the problem and the assumptions in the accompanying paradigm must be made explicit before discussion of this social problem can begin.

A 36-Year History of Fatal Road Rage in Marion County, Oregon: 1963–1998

This paper documents the 36-year history, with five examples, of fatal road rage in Marion County, Oregon. Relevant details (all that were available) from each case are presented. Alcohol intoxication was present in four of our five cases. We include two deaths by gunshot at close range, two deaths as a result of a motor vehicle traffic accident, and one natural death. All subjects were males. Three were Caucasian and two were Hispanic. The three subjects in Cases 1, 2 and 3 were complete strangers to the occupants of the other involved vehicles. The subjects in Cases 4 and 5 (along with the occupants of their own vehicles) were acquaintances of the occupants of the involved vehicle. There appears to be no previous forensic, medical or psychiatric literature on road rage as such. We present an initial psychiatric evaluation of the perpetrators of this type of fatal assault. There are no specific statutes in Oregon, at the state or county levels, regarding road rage. However, the city of Gresham, Oregon, recently enacted an ordinance regarding road rage. We stress the need for further study of this phenomenon, especially through the use of the psychological-psychiatric autopsy.

Child and adolescent injury and death from urban firearm assaults: association with age, race, and poverty

Objective—To describe rates and trends in the incidence of non-fatal and fatal firearm assault among children (16 years old or younger) over an 11 year period in Chicago, Illinois and...

Impotence in the Low-Back Syndrome

To the Editor:— We should like to disagree with the answer given to the questioner who asked for an explanation of the difficulty in erection and sexual intercourse associated with herniated lumbar disks. The answer given implies that the sexual impotence in the male patient with lumbar disk disease is related to psychologic causes secondary to "a nearly fatal assault on his manhood." We have found that impotence can often be associated with lumbar disk disease, and that the cause is organic and not psychologic in these cases. It is not necessary that there be a massive posterior protrusion of the L4-5 disk with paraplegia in order for impotence to occur. Indeed, impotence may occasionally be the presenting complaint in patients with occult lumbar disk disease ( New York Med J 69 :2465, 1969), and can be completely relieved following surgical correction of the herniated disk. Clinical experience in patients with

Assault on Dr. Wiglesworth

Our readers will be aware from the Medical Journals that Dr. Wiglesworth has had a narrow escape from a fatal assault by a male patient in the Rainhill Asylum. It must be some comfort to him to know how widespread has been the sympathy expressed with him in his very serious condition. The satisfaction felt in the favourable course which his illness has happily run is in proportion to the anxiety experienced.

FATAL ASSAULT ON DR. METCALF

FATAL ASSAULT ON DR. METCALF