[Homicide in the elderly. A study of homicide in the aged based on an Aachen autopsy sample of the 10-year period 1976-1985].
Investigations on the peculiarities of homicides of the elderly are missing in the German literature up to the present date. Therefore we undertook an evaluation of the case files collected at the Aachen Institute of Forensic Medicine from the ten-year-period 1976-1985. Among 3736 autopsies we found 183 cases of homicide with 35 victims of 60 years and older. We collected peculiarities of modus operandi related to victim, suspect and offence and compared the data with such from police criminal statistics and partially with German population statistics. Two types of homicide of the elderly can be differentiated: One is independent of the victim's age whereas the other exploits the living conditions in the higher age (living alone, socially isolated, ailing, helpless etc.) For these latter cases the name "Gerontocide" is proposed. The paper deals with the peculiar difficulties of criminal investigation and clarification in such cases, resulting on the one hand from the lack of suspicion if elderly people die, on the other hand from the more difficult detection of causal relationship between offence and death--especially in the presence of severe illness of the victim.
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Institut für Rechtsmedizin im Klinikum, RWTH Aachen.
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001344:Autopsy; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005860:Germany, West; D006708:Homicide / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male
Tötungsdelikte an älteren Menschen. Eine Untersuchung zur Greisentötung anhand des Aachener Obduktionsgutes aus dem Zehn-Jahres-Zeitraum 1976-1985.