1Asst. Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Ganapathichettikulam, Pondicherry
*Corresponding author: Joshima Janardhanan, Asst. Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Ganapathichettikulam, Pondicherry-605014, E-mail: joshimajanardhanan20@gmail.com, Contact: 7639461546
Online published on 8 February, 2019.
Homicide Injury Scale (HIS) was developed so that there is more specificity and accuracy for the victims’ injuries analysis. It has a scoring range of 1 to 6 where score 1 represents a single cause of death with no external injuries and score 6 was given when there were multiple causes of death with multiple external injuries amounting to overkill. In this study the fatal injuries found in homicide cases were categorised according to the Homicide injury scale and was correlated with various factors like types of fatal injuries, anatomical distribution of fatal injuries and type of weapon used. This study showed that as the severity of injuries increased on the scale, the cause of fatal trauma in majority of cases changed from blunt force to sharp force. It also showed a unique pattern of conglomeration of fatal injuries over the head and neck area throughout all categories of homicide cases.
Homicide, homicide injury scale, weapon of offence
