[Medico-legal and victimology aspects of homicides in the material of Bialystok Institute of Forensic Medicine in the years 1982-2003].

The authors presented an analysis of homicides based on autopsy material collected at Institute of Forensic Medicine in Bialystok in the years 1982-2003. Of 8,780 postmortem examinations, this type of death accounted for 7,4 % of cases, including 31,2 % women and 68,8 % men. Married individuals predominated among females, whereas the majority of male victims were single. Fifty-seven percent of victims died on the crime scene, 5,3 % within 48 hours. In conflicts of long-standing, immediate conflicts and fights, the perpetrators most commonly employed hard, blunt or blunt-edged crime weapons. In cases of murder with robbery and sexual homicides, strangulation was the most frequently used method. No seasonal character in homicide prevalence was observed.