Archiwum medycyny sa̧dowej i kryminologii
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jan 2006
[Medico-legal and victimology aspects of homicides in the material of Bialystok Institute of Forensic Medicine in the years 1982-2003].
The authors presented an analysis of homicides based on autopsy material collected at Institute of Forensic Medicine in Bialystok in the years 1982-2003. Of 8,780 postmortem examinations, this type of death accounted for 7,4 % of cases, including 31,2 % women and 68,8 % men. Married individuals predominated among females, whereas the majority of male victims were single. ⋯ In conflicts of long-standing, immediate conflicts and fights, the perpetrators most commonly employed hard, blunt or blunt-edged crime weapons. In cases of murder with robbery and sexual homicides, strangulation was the most frequently used method. No seasonal character in homicide prevalence was observed.
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The criteria for assessment of legal capacity to stand trial have long been a significant issue in the Polish criminal law. The main problem in opinionating practice is the fact that the code of penal procedure and the executive penal code do not provide any univocal criteria of a mental disease that should be met according to the legal regulations in force. Because of their nature and lack of uniformity, depression and affective disorders pose a particularly great problem for experts who should opinionate on the legal capacity of the suspected and the accused to stand trial. ⋯ On the other hand, however, emotional reactions and mild-degree depression disorders that are only natural when an individual violates law should not be allowed to be regarded as a grave disease and to paralyze legal proceedings. In the present study, the authors have attempted to describe the guidelines that should be followed by court-appointed experts in psychiatry that are commissioned by the court to assess the mental state of an individual. The report emphasizes that in such cases, a thorough analysis, based on medical and legal premises and the experience of the involved court experts are necessary.
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Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol · Jan 2006
Comparative Study[The role of ethanol in complex poisonings with carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide in fire victims].
A total of 230 cases of deaths in burning spaces dating from the years 1995-2003 were investigated in Forensic Medicine Department, Silesian University of Medicine, Katowice. HbCO and HCN found in 177 blood samples ranged from 4-95 % (mean, 31,5 %) and 0,5-40,3 microg/ml (mean, 9,98 microg/ml), respectively. Moreover, ethanol was found in 122 blood samples. ⋯ A comparative analysis of HbCO and HCN levels in the groups with and without ethanol showed that the range and the mean concentration of both these xenobiotics were higher in the group with no alcohol. It was also shown that the increased ethanol caused a drop in HbCO and HCN levels. To evaluate HbCO and HCN levels, the regression and correlation analysis was used.