Child and Adolescent Homicide in Diyarbakir

Studies regarding childhood homicides are lacking in our country. We aimed to investigate the frequency and demographic data of child and adolescent homicides by examining postmortem investigation and autopsy reports from Branch of the Council of Forensic Medicine in Diyarbakir Province, between 2000 and 2003. All of the cases were analyzed regarding the age, sex, method and location of homicide and injury location. There were 39 children aged 6 month through 18 years. Adolescents between 16 and 18 years constitued the overhelming number (64.1%) of all the chilhood homicides. Male children and adolescents predominated among the homicide victims (82%). The most frequent means of homicide were firearms-(51.2%). The majority of homicides occured at garden/field (46.1%). With regard to injury location, the most common site was the thorax (41%). In conclusion, setting up providing training programmes including parents will be effective for the prevention of childhood homicide.