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Brief report
Patterns of homicide in North Tunisia: a 10-year study (2005–2014)
  1. Mehdi Ben Khelil1,2,
  2. Fethia Farhani1,
  3. Hana Harzallah1,2,
  4. Mohamed Allouche1,2,
  5. Meriem Gharbaoui1,2,
  6. Ahmed Banasr1,2,
  7. Anis Benzarti1,2,
  8. Moncef Hamdoun1,2
  1. 1Faculty of Medicine, University Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
  2. 2Department of Legal Medicine, Charles Nicolle Hospital, Tunis, Tunisia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Mehdi Ben Khelil, 20 Rue Ahmed Khairedine, Le Bardo, 2000 Tunisia; benkhelilmehdi{at}yahoo.fr

Abstract

Background In Tunisia and in the Arab world, few data are available about homicide patterns. The aim of our study was to analyse the victims' profiles and the general pattern.

Methods 636 homicide victims were autopsied at the Legal Medicine Department of Charles Nicolle Hospital in Tunis, over a period of 10 years (2005–2014).

Results Victims were males in 79.7% with a male-to-female ratio of 3.93 and the average age was 37.7 years. The victim was generally from an urban area (66.7%), single (55.7%) and semiskilled (50.2%). The most common methods of homicide were sharp force (51.7%) and blunt trauma (24.8%).

Conclusions This study suggests applying urgent preventive measures targeting essentially young males and the importance of a national ‘Violence Repository’.

https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2016-042123

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors MBK, FF, HH and MH designed the study. MBK, FF, HH, MA and MG collected the data. MBK and FF drafted the first version of the article. All the authors contributed to the analysis and interpretation of data, revised the manuscript and approved its final version.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval Ethical approval of the study was provided by the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis—University Tunis El Manar research ethics committee. This study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All data were anonymised.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.