NCJ Number
217197
Journal
Journal Forensic Nursing Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Dated: Winter 2006 Pages: 199-202,204
Date Published
2006
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article presents findings from a study on forensic epidemiological characteristics of elderly homicide victims examined at the Allegheny County, PA, Medical Examiners Office for a 10-year period.
Abstract
Study results identified the leading cause of death of elderly homicide victims as blunt force trauma (clubs and hammers). This finding was in contrast to several large medical examiner studies and national data which reported the leading mechanism of death was gunshot wounds. Blunt force trauma was found as the third leading cause of death. As the number of people over age 65 dramatically increases and in turn constitute a greater percentage of homicide victims, those in law enforcement, medical examiner/coroner offices, and forensic nurses must understand the anatomical and forensic features of these types of deaths. There were over 14,400 criminal homicides defined by the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) in the United States in 2003. The elderly, those age 65 and older accounted for only 4.4 percent. Currently, the topic of elderly homicide has received limited attention by the medical community. Those studies conducted were typically descriptive retrospective studies. This article presents forensic epidemiological characteristics of elderly homicide victims age 65 and over, who were examined at the Allegheny County, PA, Medical Examiners Office for a 10-year period. The age, sex, race, location of fatal injury, and the mechanism of death were described. Among the 879 cases identified, 49 cases involved victims 65 and over, comprising 5.6 percent of the total number of homicides. Tables