Study of Pattern of homicidal deaths

Homicide is the most serious crime as old as civilization and reported as early as in the Bible. Homicide is defined as killing of one human being by another human being and is one of the leading causes of unnatural deaths. Since ages the very reason or motive for these killings has remained the same viz - lust for money, women and land. To commit murder, two elements (“Mens – rea” which means preplanning or afore thought and “Actus reus” which means the actual execution) should work together to constitute the crime. The various patterns of homicidal deaths include assault by sharp weapon, blunt weapon, firearms, strangulation, homicidal hanging, smothering, drowning, burns, poisoning etc. The incidence of homicide is increasing world wide and the pattern is also changing because of population explosion, changing life style, modern needs of the man and easy availability of various type of weapons.Hence the present study was taken up to know the pattern of injuries,age and sex distribution of victims,relationship of victim with the offenders,place of occurrence and motive behind the homicides etc.