Elder homicide in the north of Portugal

Autopsy following death by homicide in 644 cases

“…The homicide of elderly people in Senegal was relatively low in contrast to what is found in a developed country. 5 The low levels found in our country are due to the age and the lifestyle of Senegalese society. Nearly half of Senegalese are under 15 years (42.8%), one in two Senegalese (54.7%) are under 20, and only 3.5% of the population is 65 and over.…”

Physical Injuries; Major Cause of Medicolegal Cases Reported to Services Hospital, Lahore

“…Predominance of blunt trauma was also reported by a study done in Portugal. 12 Firearm injuries accounted for 11% of cases in our study. A study from England and Wales reported that fire arm injuries were seen mainly in males accounting for 9% of the homicides and less than 5% of suicides.…”

Combined homicide

“…Luis at al found that the most probable motive for homicide of elderly people was robbery, and they usually were perpetrated by a stranger. They also found that homicides usually happened at the victim's house and perpetrator in most of the cases escaped from the scene after the homicide which was consistent with robbery as the main motive 5,11 . Homicides in the victim's residence were mostly premeditated as the assailants were aware of the victim's residence and motive was financial dispute or murder for gain 12 .…”

“…Victims were infrequently found to be over 60 or under 10 years old 7 . Elderly people (more than 65 years old) are disposed to assault because of their loneliness, weakness or morbidity 10,11 . Different studies on homicide of elderly have described two main opposing categories -intra-familial homicides by family members and homicides committed by strangers, mostly secondary to burglary or robbery.…”

“…Due to the closeness of the victim and the assailant we often find defense wounds and signs of struggle like dotted abrasions on the left hand and broken nail in our case. Defense wounds are usually found on forearm and hands which also indicate homicidal death 1,8,11 . Presence of two superficial hemorrhagic infiltrations of scalp tissue on the left occipital region led us to the assumption that victim was lying on the ground, with her head on a hard surface probably when she was strangulated.…”