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Na, Park, Park, Lee, Choi, and Seo: The Statistical Analysis on Legal Autopsy Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
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Korean J Leg Med 2013;37(4):198-207.

Published online: 17 January 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7580/kjlm.2013.37.4.198

The Statistical Analysis on Legal Autopsy Performed in Korea during 2012 Year

Joo Young Na, Jong-Pil Park, Hye Jin Park, Bong Woo Lee, Young Shik Choi, Joong Seok Seo

Division of Forensic Medicine, National Forensic Service, Seoul, Korea

게재승인 : 2013년 11월 25일 책임저자 : 나주영 (158-707) 서울시 양천구 신월동 지양로 139 국립과학수사연구원 법의학과 전화 : +82-2-2600-4814 FAX : +82-2-2600-4828 E-mail : pdrdream@gmail.com

Received 17 October 2013       Revised 4 November 2013       Accepted 25 November 2013

Copyright © 2013 The Korean Society for Legal Medicine

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This statistical analysis of 4,709 legal autopsies performed in Korea in 2012 was conducted to obtain primary data about and related variables. The analysis revealed the following: 1. Of the total number of deaths, men accounted for and women, 26.8%. Evidently, the number of deaths among men was more than twice that among women. 2. With respect to mode of death, 54.8% were recorded as unnatural deaths, 39.2% were natural deaths, and 6.0% had unknown causes. Of the 2,581 unnatural deaths, 44.8% were accidental deaths; 27.2%, suicidal; 17.5%, homicidal; and 10.3%, undetermined. 3. Of the total number of unnatural deaths, 43.0% were trauma-related deaths, for which falling down was the leading cause, accounting for 33.5% cases. Asphyxiation was accounted for 17.2%, among which the predominant cause was hanging (55.3%). Moreover, 12.5% of deaths were due to drowning; 11.5%, poisoning; 11.2%, thermal injuries; 2.7%, complications in medical procedures; and 0.3%, electrocution, starvation, or neglect. 4. Among 1,847 natural deaths, heart diseases accounted for 50.2% and vascular diseases accounted for 16.7%. 5. There were 207 cases of deaths among children under the age of 10, of which 94 were unnatural and 49 were homicidal deaths. Of all cases, 9.2% had an unknown cause of death, and of these 67.6%, were putrefied or skeletonized bodies.

Keywords: Key Words, Autopsy, Cause of death, Manner of death, Statistic, Korea

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crossref

Table 1.
Deaths, Unnatural Deaths, and Autopsies in Korea during 2012 Year
  Seoul Pusan Incheon Daegu Gwangju Daejeon Ulsan Gyeonggi Gangwon Chungbuk Chungnam Jeonbuk Jeonnam Gyeongbuk Gyeongnam Jeju Total
Deaths 41514 20534 12881 12352 6874 6580 4567 50830 11030 10478 14814 13700 16766 20644 20419 3238 267221
Unnatural 5744 1975 1824 1658 957 1023 680 7776 1788 1691 2399 1773 2173 2844 2904 621 37830
Autopsies 1067 277 420 ─∗ 102 79 ─∗ 1288 164 156 281 149 278 220 223 ─∗ 4704 (5)
Aurotpsy                                  
rate 1 † (%) 2.6 1.3 3.3 NA§ 1.5 1.2 NA 2.5 1.5 1.5 1.9 1.1 1.7 1.1 1.1 NA 1.9
Aurotpsy                                  
rate 2 † (%) 18.6 14.0 23.0 NA 10.7 7.7 NA 16.6 9.2 9.2 11.7 8.4 12.8 7.7 7.7 NA 13.5

∗ : Autopsy data has not been fully collected.;

† Autopsy rate 1: Autopsies/Deaths;

† Autopsy rate 2: Autopsies/Unnatural deaths;

§ NA: Not analysed

Table 2.
Age, Sex, and Manner of Death of Total Number of Legal Autopsies Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
Manner of Death Age < 9 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80 < NI∗ Subtotal Total (%)
Sex M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F N.I.∗ M F
Unnatural   49 45 40 22 168 82 245 150 445 179 425 151 187 59 115 78 28 44 44 9 16 1746 819 2581 54.8
 Suicide   0 0 11 7 52 42 76 74 123 59 91 40 43 11 17 19 8 10 15 3 5 436 265 701 27.2
 Homicide   24 25 10 6 16 20 22 33 62 47 64 36 25 17 18 13 3 9 2 0 2 246 206 452 17.5
 Accident   23 19 17 8 79 16 125 35 215 49 224 65 99 27 67 38 16 21 10 1 1 875 279 1154 44.7
 Undetermined   2 1 2 1 21 4 22 8 45 24 46 10 20 4 13 8 1 4 17 5 8 189 69 266 10.3
Natural   49 36 12 11 70 25 227 49 397 84 418 75 208 47 65 36 13 12 10 1 2 1469 376 1847 39.2
Unknown   17 11 1 2 6 3 10 5 37 13 36 11 16 5 13 3 2 3 25 10 52 163 66 281 6.0
Subtotal   115 92 53 35 244 110 482 204 879 276 879 237 411 111 193 117 43 59 79 20 70 3378 1261 47091 100.0
Total 207 88 354 686 1155 1116 522 310 102 169 4709
(%) 4.4 1.9 7.5 14.6 24.5 23.7 11.1 6.6 2.2 3.6 100.0

∗ NI: Not identified

Table 3.
Cause of Death and Sex in Unnatural Death of Legal Autopsies Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
  Sex Sucide Homicide Accident Undetermined Subtotal Total (%)
M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗
Trauma   79 54 1 202 115 2 462 115 1 50 28 0 793 312 4 1109 43.0
Asphyxia   157 121 4 33 72 0 38 16 0 3 1 0 231 210 4 445 17.2
Drowning   69 19 0 2 1 0 88 12 0 98 29 5 257 61 5 323 12.5
Poisoning   111 61 0 1 5 0 76 29 0 12 3 0 200 98 0 298 11.5
Thermal injury   18 7 0 0 3 0 161 68 0 24 6 2 203 84 2 289 11.2
Electrocution   1 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 9 0.3
Starvation/neglect   0 0 0 4 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 5 4 0 9 0.3
Medical procedure   0 1 0 0 0 0 34 35 0 0 0 0 34 36 0 70 2.7
Anaphylaxis   0 0 0 0 0 0 6 2 0 0 0 0 6 2 0 8 0.3
Unknown COD†   2 1 0 4 7 0 2 0 0 2 3 0 10 11 0 21 0.8
Subtotal   437 264 5 246 206 2 876 278 1 189 70 7 1748 8 818 15 2581 100.0
(%)   16.9 10.2 0.2 9.5 8.0 0.1 33.9 10.8 0.0 7.3 2.7 0.3 67.7 31.7 0.6 100.0  
Total 706 454 1155 266
(%) 27.4 17.6 44.8 10.3

∗ NI: Not identified;

† COD: Cause of death

Table 4.
Cause of Death in Trauma of Legal Autopsies Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
  Sex Sucide Homicide Accident Undetermined Subtotal Total (%)
M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗
Blunt force injury   1 1 0 94 42 0 63 9 0 27 20 0 185 72 0 257 23.2
Sharp force injury   29 6 0 89 70 0 2 2 0 1 0 0 121 78 0 199 17.9
Gunshot injury   3 0 0 4 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 9 0 0 9 0.8
Traffic injury   3 1 0 1 2 0 192 62 1 1 0 0 197 65 1 263 23.7
Fall down   43 46 1 14 2 1 195 42 0 20 7 1 272 97 3 372 33.5
Explosion   0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 9 0.8
Subtotal   79 54 1 202 116 1 462 115 1 50 27 1 793 312 4 1109 100.0
(%)   7.1 4.9 0.1 18.2 10.5 0.1 41.7 7 10.4 0.1 4.5 2.4 0.1 71.5 28.1 0.4 100.0  
Total 134 319 578 78 1109
(%) 12.1 28.8 52.1 7.0 100.0

∗ NI: Not identified

Table 5.
Fatal Sites of Blunt Force Injury and Manner of Death of Legal Autopsies Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
  Head Neck Chest Abdomen Extremity Multiple TSH∗ PSH† Total (%)
Suicide 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.8
Homicide 74 2 6 25 0 21 7 1 136 52.9
Accident 28 1 8 10 2 20 0 3 72 28.0
Undetermined 36 1 2 4 0 3 1 0 47 18.3
Total 139 5 16 39 2 44 8 4 257 100.0
(%) 54.1 1.9 6.2 15.2 0.8 17.1 3.1 1.6 100.0  

∗ TSH: Traumatic shock;

† PSH: Primary shock

Table 6.
Fatal Sites of Sharp Force Injury and Manner of Death of Legal Autopsies Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
  Head Neck Chest Abdomen Back Arm Leg Multiple Total (%)
Suicide 0 8 4 12 0 2 0 9 35 17.6
Homicide 3 34 46 18 1 0 4 53 159 79.9
Accident 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 4 2.0
Undetermined 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.5
Total 4 42 51 31 1 3 4 63 199 100.0
(%) 2.0 21.1 25.6 15.6 0.5 1.5 2.0 31.7 100.0  
Table 7.
Cause of Death in Asphyxia of Legal Autopsies Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
  Sex Sucide Homicide Accident Undetermined Subtotal Total (%)
M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗
Hanging   138 100 4 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 141 101 4 246 55.3
Ligature strangulation   11 15 0 12 11 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 25 27 0 52 11.7
Manual strangulation   0 0 0 7 42 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 9 42 0 51 11.5
Choking   0 0 0 0 0 0 18 11 0 0 0 0 18 11 0 29 6.5
Smothering   3 5 0 12 6 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 18 13 0 31 7.0
Crushing asphyxia   0 0 0 0 0 0 8 1 0 0 0 0 8 1 0 9 2.0
Postural asphyxia   0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.4
Oxygen deficiency   3 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 7 1.6
Combined   2 1 0 2 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 14 0 18 4.0
Subtotal   157 121 4 33 72 0 38 16 0 3 1 0 231 210 4 445 100.0
(%)   35.3 27.2 0.9 7.4 16.2 0.0 8.5 3.6 0.0 0.7 0.2 0.0 51.9 47.2 0.9 100.0  
Total   282 105 54 4 445
(%)   63.4 23.6 12.1 0.9 100.0

∗ NI: Not identified

Table 8.
Cause of Death in Poisoning of Legal Autopsies Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
  Sex Suicide Homicide Accident Undetermined Subtotal Total (%)
M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗
Ethanol   0 0 0 0 0 0 28 13 0 0 0 0 28 13 0 41 13.8
Carbon monoxide   30 11 0 1 3 0 29 5 0 2 0 0 62 19 0 81 27.2
Cyanides   7 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 9 2 0 11 3.7
Agrochemicals   38 16 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 4 0 0 43 18 0 61 20.5
Narcotics   3 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 2 0 6 2.0
Therapeutic drugs   27 28 0 0 1 0 8 10 0 3 3 0 38 42 0 80 26.8
Organic solvents   3 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 7 1 0 8 2.7
Others   3 1 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 9 1 0 10 3.4
Subtotal   111 61 0 1 5 0 76 29 0 12 3 0 200 98 0 298 1 100.0
(%)   37.2 20.5 0.0 0.3 1.7 0.0 25.5 9.7 0.0 4.0 1.0 0.0 67.1 32.9 0.0 100.0  
Total   172 6 105 15 298
(%)   57.7 2.0 35.2 5.0 100.0

∗ NI: Not identified

Table 9.
Cause of Death in Thermal Injury of Legal Autopsies Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
  Sex Sucide Homicide Accident Undetermined Subtotal Total (%)
M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗ M F NI∗
Fire   2 0 0 0 2 0 123 50 0 22 6 2 147 58 2 207 7 71.6
Burn   16 6 0 0 1 0 6 1 0 2 0 0 24 8 0 32 1 11.1
Heat stroke   0 0 0 0 0 0 6 3 0 0 0 0 6 3 0 9 3.1
Hypothermia   0 1 0 0 0 0 26 14 0 0 0 0 26 15 0 41 1 14.2
Subtotal   18 7 0 0 3 0 161 68 0 24 6 2 203 84 2 289 1 00.0
(%)   6.2 2.4 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 55.7 23.5 0.0 8.3 2.1 0.7 70.2 29.1 0.7    
Total   25 3 229 32 289
(%)   8.7 1.0 79.2 11.1 100.0

∗ NI: Not identified

Table 10.
Cause of Death and Sex in Natural Death of Legal Autopsies Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
  Cause of Death Male Female NI∗ Subtotal (%) Total (%)
Heart Ischemic disease 651 70 0 721 77.7 928 50.2
Myocardial disease 36 13 0 49 5.3    
Valvular disease 4 0 0 4 0.4    
Hypertensive disease 3 5 0 8 0.9    
Others 118 28 0 146 15.7    
Vascular system Cerebral vessel 126 57 1 184 59.7 308 16.7
Aorta 41 13 0 54 17.5    
Pulmonary vessel 11 18 0 29 9.4    
Esophageal varix 29 9 0 38 12.3    
Others 1 2 0 3 1.0    
Respiratory system Larynx/pharynx 1 1 0 2 3.5 57 3.1
Trachea 0 0 0 0 0.0    
Lung 43 10 0 53 93.0    
Others 2 0 0 2 3.5    
Digestive system Stomach/intestine 22 6 0 28 28.3 99 5.4
Liver 38 21 0 59 59.6    
Pancreas 4 1 0 5 5.1    
Others 6 1 0 7 7.1    
Endocrine Diabetes 12 4 0 16 11.2 143 7.7
/nutritional Chronic alcoholism 91 22 1 114 79.7    
/metabolic disorder Malnutrition 5 6 0 11 7.7    
  Others 0 2 0 2 1.4    
Pregnancy Hypertensive disease 0 1 0 1 20.0 5 0.3
/puerperium Uterus 0 0 0 0 0.0    
/delivery Embolism 0 2 0 2 40.0    
  Others 0 2 0 2 40.0    
Perinatal conditions Hypoxia 5 2 0 7 38.9 18 1.0
  Others 7 4 0 11 61.1    
Miscellaneous   68 27 0 95 100.0 95 5.1
Ill-defined mortality SMDS† 30 1 0 31 16.0 194 10.5
  SIDS† 20 14 0 34 17.5    
  Unknown COD§ 94 35 0 129 66.5    
Total (%)   1468 377 2     1847 92.3

∗ NI: Not identified;

† SMDS: Sudden menhood death syndrome;

† SIDS: Sudden infant death syndrome;

§ COD: Cause of death

Table 11.
Cause of Death and Sex in Miscellaneous Natural Death of Legal Autopsies Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
  Cause of Death Male Female Subtotal (%) Total
CNS∗ Epilepsy 6 5 11 55.0 20
Encephalomeningitis 3 1 4 20.0  
Others 3 2 5 25.0  
Certain infection Septicemia 6 4 10 28.6 35
Tuberculosis 19 0 19 54.3  
Others 6 0 6 17.1  
Neoplasm Respiratory 4 0 4 18.2 22
Digestive 6 1 7 31.8  
Others 6 5 11 50.0  
Genitourinary disease Kidney 4 4 8 72.7 11
Others 0 3 3 27.3  
Congenital disease Heart 4 1 5 71.4 7
Others 1 1 2 28.6  

∗ CNS: Central nervous system

Table 12.
Manner of Death in Children under 10 of Legal Autopsies Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
  Sex Neonate∗ Infancy† Preschool† Prepubertal§ Subtotal Total (%)
M F M F M F M F M F
Unnatural   12 14 9 8 20 14 8 9 49 45 94 45.4
 Suicide   0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
 Homicide   6 8 5 3 10 7 3 7 24 25 49 52.1
 Accident   6 5 4 5 9 7 4 2 23 19 42 44.7
 Undetermined   0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 1 3 3.2
Natural   18 12 24 15 7 6 0 3 49 36 85 41.1
Unknown   7 4 6 3 3 2 1 2 17 11 28 13.5
Subtotal   37 30 39 26 30 22 9 14 115 92 207 100.0
(%)   17.9 14.5 18.8 12.6 14.5 10.6 4.3 6.8 55.6 44.4 100.0  
Total   67 65 52 23 207
(%)   32.4 31.4 25.1 11.1 100.0

∗ Neonate: birth~4 weeks;

† Infancy: 1 month~1 year;

† Preschool: 2 years~5 years;

§ Prepubertal: 6 years~10 years

Table 13.
Analysis of Unknown Cause of Death Cases Performed in Korea during 2012 Year
Manner of Death Cases of Unknown Cause of Death Total (%)
Putrefied Skeletonized Infancy Others
Unnatural 7 0 7 7 21 4.9
 Suicide 2 0 0 1 3 14.3
 Homicide 3 0 7 1 11 52.4
 Accident 0 0 0 2 2 9.5
 Undetermined 2 0 0 3 5 23.8
Natural 57 0 8 64 129 29.9
Unknown 172 55 23 31 281 65.2
Subtotal 236 55 38 102 431 100.0
(%) 54.8 12.8 8.8 23.7    
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