Citation

Wilke-Schalhorst N, Schröder AS, Puschel K, Edler C. Forensic Sci. Int. 2019; 300: 145-150.

Affiliation

Department of Legal Medicine, University of Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. Electronic address: c.edler@uke.de.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.04.038

PMID

31108375

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.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Corpse dismemberment; Corpse disposal; Criminal mutilation; Homicide