Mob justice fatalities in South Africa: a forensic mortuary study

The objectives were to describe the demographics of the victims of fatal mob justice, describe the trends of the number of fatalities and causes of death over time, assess hospitalization frequency , describe the nature and location of injuries sustained, and to report on ancillary investigations performed. A total of 354 cases were analyzed. All victims were Black (100%), with 99.4% of the sample group being male. The largest proportion was aged between 21–30 years (49.2%) with the majorit y having South African citizenship (68.9%). The majority of deaths were due to blunt force injuries (92.4%) with blunt force head injury being the most prevalent (79.9%). Half of the victims died on the scene (50.6%; n = 175). Hospitalization occurred in 49.4% (n = 175) of cases, of which, 5 6.3% died within 24 h of hospital admittance. Ancillary tests were ordered in 22.6% of cases. Adequate resources should be distributed to appropriate departments to engage with and monitor communities in high incidence areas to curb these killings.
Source: Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology - Category: Forensic Medicine Source Type: research