The medico-legal scene in Dubai: 2002-2007.
Various characteristics of the medico-legal scene in Dubai are described, along with an overview of all cases examined over a period of 6 years. During the period of study, a total of 17,683 cases were examined in the Department of Forensic Medicine of Dubai Police General Headquarters. This constituted a yearly average of (2947.16). The average annual increment was 11.13%, the percentage of increase between 2002 and 2007 being 68.96%. Of these 10,165 (57.48%) were clinical cases of injuries, 5404 (30.56%) postmortem examinations, 1525 (8.62%) clinical cases of sexual crimes, 409 (2.3%) age estimations, 58 (0.32%) medical responsibility, 20 (0.11%) criminal abortion, 61 (0.34%) civil actions and 38 (0.21%) miscellaneous cases. Of postmortem examinations, 4846 (89.7%) of them were males and 558 (10.3%) females. The age ranged from (0-90) years, with a mean age of 40.5 years. The peak incidence was in the age group (20-50) years, where the extremes of age were least represented (Fig. 1). Only in 361 cases (6.68% of the grand total) the deceased was a local citizen. Autopsies amounted to 394 cases, which constituted 7.29% of the total deaths examined. The four manners of death in descending order of frequency were natural 3003 (55.57%), accidental 1727 (32%), suicidal 498 (9.2%), homicidal 164 (3%). The manner was undetermined in 12 (0.22%) of the cases over the 6 year period.
Benomran
Fawzi A
FA
General Department of Forensic Science, Dubai Police General Headquarters, Dubai Medical College, P.O. Box 39844, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
D000024:Abortion, Illegal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000059:Accidents / Q000401:mortality*; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001344:Autopsy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002423:Cause of Death; D035881:Compensation and Redress; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006708:Homicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014479:United Arab Emirates; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology