NCJ Number
223398
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2008 Pages: 699-702
Date Published
May 2008
Length
4 pages
Annotation
In order to help fill the gap in the forensic literature regarding forensic autopsies of child and adolescent victims, all forensic autopsy cases of children and adolescents (4 to 19 years old) conducted in Quebec Province (Canada) over a 5-year period (2000-2004) were retrospectively analyzed.
Abstract
Out of the 223 cases of child and adolescent forensic autopsies (148 males, 75 females, 6.6 percent of all forensic autopsies), most of the cases involved victims who were in the 15-19-year-old age group. Forensic autopsies in the 4 to 9 age group involved slightly more male victims (55 percent). Manners of death were determined to be predominantly accidents (57 percent) and homicide (37 percent). No deaths due to suicide were identified in this age group, consistent with previous studies. More males were determined to have been killed in accidents (74 percent), and females were more likely to be victims of a homicide (47 percent females and 17 percent males). The predominant means of homicide in this age group was asphyxia (43 percent), closely followed by sharp-force injuries (36 percent). In the 15-19 age group, both accident (38 percent) and suicide (25 percent) outnumbered homicide (24 percent). In the 10 to 14 age group, causes of death were accident (57 percent), homicide (31 percent), and natural (7 percent). Homicide by firearms composed 33 percent of adolescent homicides, followed by sharp-force injuries (24 percent), blunt-force injuries (24 percent), asphyxia (17 percent), and intoxication (2 percent). The findings for the 10-14 and 15-19 age groups are compared with those of a similar study in South Carolina by Batalis and Collins for deaths of adolescents ages 10 to 19 years old. In the current study, data for each case include age, sex, manner of death, and cause of death. 9 tables and 5 references