The term sharp force refers to a form of mechanical imact causing injuries by means of pointed and or sharp egded

intruments Study shows that 56% of females and 42% of males were killed in their own homes compared to the next highest death scene out in the open at 15% for females and 28% for males The high number of the crimes committed in their own homes can be attributed to the fact that homicdes owing to sharp force are often homicides of domestic nature. The princible is that findings at the crime scene are important to determine whether the death was caused by homicide suicide of by accident ( 69) Purpose of the visit is to reconstruct the sequence of events in the given case (69) Injuries are classified according to their shape as stabs, cuts, and slashes or chops. o The distinctive characteristic of a stab is that the depth of the wound is greater that its lenghth. The wound has sharp edges, which can be brought into apposition. The instrument is pointed and hits at a perpendicular angle o Cuts are also sharp egded incisions on the skin that can be approximated, but here the instrument hits the skim more at a tangential angle. Cuts are longer than they are deep and show shallow extension at the ends of the wound and their depth varies along the course. The causative instrument is sharp edged o Shlases are caused by half sharp force. Slashing tools are sharp edged and often rather heavy so that the wounds produced by them contain elements of both blunt and shar force in terms of morphology. (72) The shape of a wound does not necessarily provide information as to the weapon used. The freaquently used object is a knife (72) o Single edged kitchen or pocket knives with blade length between 10 and 13 cm. Although stab wounds will usually provide information as to whether a single or double edged knofe was used it is rather rare that conclusions can be drawn with regard to its general shape. o Caution must be used when drawing conclusions as of the width of the blade from the incision. o The blas needs not to have penetrated in to the body at full length o Many stab wounds are the poduct of stabing and cutting movement, so that the length of the wound slit suggests a wider balde that the knife actually used. o May be able to tell if the blade was inserted all the way if there are punch marks left around the wound from the blades hilt. In certain tools used for stabbing, this mark may have a characteristic shape and thus give clue to the weapon used. o Generally injuries can be assigned to an object best if the DNA of the victim can be found on the weapon used. Or in the rare case the tip of the knife has broken off in the victims body after striking a bone ( 74 ) Number of stab wounds show a certain correlation with the gender of the perpetrator. In homicides caused by sharp force objects commited by females the victims had fewer stab wounds on average that in homicides that were commited by male perps (77)

Defesner injuries Defense injuries resulting from sharp force objectprovide specific evidence of infliction by another parth and prove that the victim ws at least initially conscious and able to ward off the assault to certain degree. (78) Defensive injuries may occur when the victim raises the hands or arms for protections ( passive defense) or tries to seize the weapon or the attackrs weapon holding hand (active defense injuries) Active defence injuriesare located on the pamls, the flexor sides of the fingers and the interdigital spaces. Active defence wounds are seen particularly often in the region on the thumb and index finger Passive defense injuries are located on the exterior sides of the forearm and the back of the hands. They occur when victims raise their hands for protection or move their arm upward to ward off a stab effected from the top downwards Preferential sites for defensive injuries are the left forearm and left hand with appocimately two thirds of all injuries being located on the left hand side ( katkici et al)

such as type of weapon used, differentiation between homicidal suicide and manslaughter, perpetrator handedness, identify difference between single and multiple numbers of assailants involved, and the state of the victim at the start of the incident