Homicide victims and mechanisms in Lithuania from 2004 to 2016

Abstract A retrospective analysis of 2000 intentional homicide cases from the State Forensic Medicine Service (Vilnius, Lithuania) was carried out in order to evaluate the portrait of homicide victims and mechanisms of death between 2004 and 2016. The definition of intentional homicide appears to be quite straightforward, as a homicide occurs when one person's cause of death can be attributed to another one. Moreover, homicide is accomplished by conscious, active, intentional, or unintentional activities or inaction. All included cases of homicide were qualified as intentional murder. Children rarely become victims of intentional homicide. The group of child intentional murder made only 4.2% of all homicide cases. Seventy-three percent of homicide victims were male. The female victims were older than male and were murdered using a larger variety of objects ( p p p