FAMILY VIOLENCE IN ITS MOST SEVERE FORM: A HOMICIDE CASE

Family Violence

In

I

ts

Most Severe Fonn:

A Homicide

Case

Necmi <;EKiN*, A. Dolunay SARICA *, Mete K. GULMEN* Nursel BiLGiN*, Behnan ALPER*, Biilent SAVRAN**

*9ukurova University, School of Medicine, Department of Forensic Medicine, BalcalI, Adana, TURKEY **Adana Branch of Forensic Medicine Council, Morque Department, Adana-TURKEY Summary

The objectives of this paper are a brieflook at family violence in the light of a homicide case, and family violence as a public health issue in which prevention involves the partici-pation of all the society.

Case: A 33-year- old femalebrought dead to the emergency room of a hospital and foren-sic investigations carried out. An autopsy performed and revealed several traumatic injuries.

The case accepted as a family violence by the prosecution and discussed within literatUre terms.

Key words: Family violence, homicide, public health

Ozet

Aile i~i ~iddetin

En

Eu yazl, bir cinayet olgusu l~gmda aile i9i ~iddeti ele aJarak, toplumun katllJml ile

onlemlerin almabilecegi bir halk sagbgl sorunu oldugunu vurgulamaYl ama9lamaktadlr. Olgu: alii olarak hastane acil servisine getirilen 33 ya~mda bir kadm olup otopsisinde a-glr travmatik lezyonlar saptanml~tlr.

Adli tahkikatmda e~i tarafindan doviilerek oldiiriildiigii ortaya 91kan olgu tartl~llarak sunulmu~tur.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Aile i9i ~iddet, cinayet, halk saglJgl

In1roduction

Violence is known to be much more prevalent and accepted by the society than most people believe. People seem to consider violent acts as ordinary behavior and mainly take no attempts for prevention. Violence takes many forms such as physical, sexual, psycho-logical and economical and it is surprising to realize that most of this violence occurs in the home (1). The victims of violence are mostly women and children and the perpetrators are men living within the same home. Research on domestic violence points out that 1/3 - 1/5 of the women around the world have come across violence, 94% of these women were faced with violence again, more than 50% of murdered women were killed by their partners, 1/5 of pregnant women have faced with physical violence and that 1/5 of women were

sexual-ly abused at least once in their lives(1,2,3,4). Most of all, violence is found to take place in all socio - economical levels and cultures. Once violent acts or attitudes begin, they tend to reoccur in time with significant increase and at the most take the victims lives such as in the presented case (1-11).

The Case

A 33 year old female who had been married for 15 years, had 3 children and did not carry - - - Adli TIp Derg., Cilt 15, SaYI }, YII 2001, Sayfa 66 - 69·

ADLİ TIP DERGİSİ

Journal of Forensic Medicine

N. <;:EKiN, A. D. SARICA, M. K. GULMEN, N. BiLGiN, B. ALPER, B. SAVRAN

a profession was brought dead to the emergency room of a hospital by one of her relatives. An autopsy revealed several traumatic injuries. The case was accepted as family violence by the prosecution and is, in this article, discussed with related research findings.

The victim was brought to the hospital dead by one of her relatives on the murder night. According to the relative the woman's husband called him on the night of the murder and claimed that he was drunk and had beaten his wife to death. He asked his relative to come over and bury the body together. The relative had doubts about the death of the victim so he decided to take her to the hospital just in case. The woman's father claimed that his daughter and her husband were cousins and that she was faced with physical violence from the beginning of her marriage. But the belief that a woman's place is her husband's home and that a mother's only job is to look after her children forced her to stay. The neighbors reported that they heard the cries of the woman but did not call for any help on the murder night.

The autopsy revealed several traumatic injuries such as eccymosis and hematomas in the various parts of her body. She had a long laceration in the fronto - parietal region and also had bilateral hemothorax due to her broken ribs on both sides starting from the fourth rib midclaviculary (Pictures I - 6).

Discussion And Conclusion

Violence is by no doubt a very prevalent public issue, where women and children make up most of the victim population. One of the most dramatic findings on violence is that the society seems to consider this problem to be solved within the family. As presented in the case, the neighbors made no attempt to prevent the violent act.

Our previous study conducted on physicians revealed that 68.9% of the participants

67

Family Violence In Its Most Severe Form: A Homicide Case

believed violent behavior to be dealt within the family. Where experts believe in not taking responsibility, it is not surprising to see that public also feels no concern for domestic vio-lence (12).

The victims of domestic violence seem to be unaware of their social and legal rights, because they are not given the privilege of education as well as not being allowed to work. In developing countries such as Turkey, this applies especially for women. These women are not provided a community shelter and they have to go back home, to where they had been traumatized previously. These factors lead women to develop learned helplessness for violence, which mainly results in severe damage and perhaps death, as in the presented case (1,3,5).

In one of our previous archival studies on reasons for murdering, confirming other research findings in other countries, we found that most of the victim popUlation was a rel-ative or a known person to the perpetrators. Also most of the reasons for killing the victim put forward by the perpetrators were arguments with the victim, chastity and hostility between the two sides. Thus, people seem to lack communication skills and have the ten-dency to kill one another for very simple reasons. Women are considered to be at a higher risk for heing murdered because they are motivated to live with obeying their partners, despite the fact that they can even get killed by them (3,6,10,11).

Turkey is one of the nations to have signed the Declaration of Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDA W) and the State has prepared reports to determine the national efforts (13). We believe that this step is necessary but not sufficient to achieve the protection of women in the society. The male dominance in social and legal matters have not changed with an exception of the law concerning the protection of the family. According to this law, the perpetrator can be charged by the court to leave the house and can also be ordered to end the violent acts and stop using drugs or alcohol. The court may also charge the perpetrator with alimony. Such a new law is only the beginning of the legal trends in equality between men and women. As far as we are concerned, in order to be con-sistent with the international declarations Turkey has signed, the legal system has to keep changing to create the equality of men and women (14,15,16).

The State, civil organizations and the individuals have to cooperate both socially and economically in order to achieve the desired equality of men and women. This equality has to be taught to persons beginning within the family from childhood and schools must sup-port the idea. Shelter homes for women are only located in a few metropolitans of Turkey and should be provided as well in many other cities. Also more empirical studies should be conducted on women and domestic violence (3,10). Yet to our concern, it is of importance

68

N. <;:EKiN, A. D. SARICA, M. K. GULMEN, N. BiLGiN, B. ALPER, B. SAVRAN

to develop a society in which all citizens are fully aware and are protectors of their rights

and benefits.

References

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14. Kalan i. Kadm ve AdaIe!. Kaynak Yaymlan, istanbul, 1998.

15. Sala<;in S, <;:ekin N, Ozdemir H, Giilmen MK ve ark. 8. Ulusal Adli TIp Giinleri, 1995; 73-78. 16. <;:ekin N, Savran B, Giilmen MK, Alper B ve ark. IV. Kadm <;:ah§malan, 7-9 Eyliil, izmir.

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iIeti§im Adresi : Do<;. Dr. Necmi <;:EKiN <;:ukurova Universitesi Adli TIp Anabilim Dah ADANA