TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2013//
TI  - The incidence, pathology of trauma and victim profiles of homicidal deaths in Pretoria, South Africa (2007-2008)
JO  - Medicine, science, and the law
A1  - Cocks, Jeannie
A1  - Saayman, Gert
SP  - 61
EP  - 66
VL  - 53
IS  - 2
N2  - This study aimed to establish the incidence of homicide, associated pathology of trauma and victim profiles in cases admitted to or managed as homicidal deaths at the Pretoria Medico-Legal Laboratory (PMLL) over the period of 2007-2008. A total of 1088 cases were reviewed. Homicides accounted for 22.7% of all cases admitted to the PMLL. The majority of homicide victims were male individuals (87.0%). The most common cause of death was gunshot wounds (42.6%), followed by blunt force trauma (25.1%). Homicides are most likely to occur at the victim's place of residence (28.5%) and only 37.4% of victims survive long enough to receive hospital care. The results of this study seem to concur with international findings for the most part, with a few interesting deviations. Highlighting at-risk groups, as well as dangerous locations and incident times, creates the potential to decrease the occurrence of unnecessary deaths by generating an awareness of the trends.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0025-8024
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1258/msl.2012.012027
ID  - ref1
ER  -