1Department of Forensic Medicine Central Hospital, Dammam.
2Department of Pathology, King Faisal University, Dammam, KSA.
A retrospective study was carried out on 147 homicide victims autopsied at Forensic Medicine Center in Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (from 2002 to 2006).
Of these cases, 132 (89.8%) were males and 15 (10.2%) females, and the ratio of the males to females was 8.8; more than 85% of the victims were between the ages of 21 and 50 years.
Local Saudi nationals comprised the maximum proportion of victims (44.9%), while the rest were distributed as Indian (21%), Bangladeshi (10.2%), Sri-Lankans (5.4%), Indonesians (4%), Pakistani (2.7%), Yemeni (2.7%), Egyptian (2%), Filipino (2%) and other seven different nationalities (4.7%). Most of cases occurred during day time (55.1%) and summer was the commonest season of homicide. In our series, Firearm injuries were the most common type (37%) followed by blunt force injuries (31%) and sharp force injuries (27%). Injuries were inflicted to the head in 47.6% of cases.
Most of the cases (93.2%) were caused by a single offender, whereas multiple offenders were accused in the remainder. Only twenty seven percent of cases were hospitalized; postmortem blood alcohol was found in 11.5% of victims, and amphetamine in 8.1% victims.
More than one third of reported homicides were due to firearm injuries, which bring up issues related to possession of firearms and changes in cultural attitudes towards use of firearms, if a decrease in firearm-related homicides is desired.
Homicide, Autopsy, Retrospective
