Elsevier

Forensic Science International

Volume 99, Issue 2, 11 January 1999, Pages 143-147
Forensic Science International

Deaths among homeless people in Istanbul

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0379-0738(98)00178-9Get rights and content

Abstract

The number of the homeless people in Istanbul, one of the largest cities in the world, is at present unknown. There has been no previous study in Turkey on cases and causes of death occurring among these individuals. In this paper, documents and autopsy reports of the Mortuary Section of the Council of Forensic Medicine, Istanbul, covering the period January 1st, 1991–December 31st, 1995, were reviewed. We established that there were 126 cases of death among homeless individuals in Istanbul during this period, 120 of them being males (95%), four (3%) females, and two (2%) transsexuals. Ninety-four corpses were found outdoors, 32 indoors. No personal documents, such as identity cards, were found in 110 individuals (87%), whereas only 16 individuals could be identified. Most deaths occurred in the age group of 41–50 years. One hundred and three of the cases (82%) died in the cold season between October and April. The deaths of 98 cases were attributable to natural causes, whereas the remaining 28 cases died from unnatural causes. Respiratory tract diseases occupied the first rank among cases of death from natural causes (44%). Alcohol abuse and other infections were further striking factors contributing to the fatal outcome. This is the first retrospective study on this topic in Turkey. However, more detailed and anterospectively programmed studies on this subject, a growing social problem, should be carried out.

Introduction

As in most other countries of the world, homelessness is a big social problem in Turkey as well.

Insufficient efforts of competent authorities in solving this problem led to an increase in the number of homeless people during the last few years [1].

There are no special shelters prepared and no special social centres established for them. As a consequence, these people are faced with grave difficulties in self-maintenance which are further exacerbated by adverse weather conditions.

The aim of this study is to attract the attention to the preventable causes of deaths of the homeless population.

Section snippets

Material and method

All cases of suspicious death occurring in the municipal area of Istanbul are referred to the Mortuary Section of the Council of Forensic Medicine for medicolegal autopsy.

In this paper, documents and autopsy reports of this department were reviewed: The autopsy material of the period January 1st, 1991–December 31st, 1995 comprised 10583 cases. Among them, 126 individuals were regarded as homeless. Cases with incomplete records were excluded. We tried to assess the approximate age, in addition

Results

One hundred and twenty of the 126 individuals (95%) were males, the remaining four females (3%) and two transsexuals (2%).

Sixty one percent of the cases were estimated to be in the age group of 31–50 years.

Ninety-four corpses (75%) had been found outdoors (e.g. alleys, parks, under bridges, beneath castle walls or in old vehicles), whereas 32 corpses (25%) were found indoors (e.g. in abandoned buildings, central heating rooms or public toilets).

Scene investigation had been carried out in 54

Discussion

In the present study, various aspects of death among homeless individuals in Istanbul were evaluated and compared with the data in the literature on the subject.

The over-representation of males in the homeless population in our study (120 among total of 126 individuals) is in accordance with the data of other studies on the subject 2, 3, 4.

There is an accumulation of death cases in the age group of 31–50 years, a finding also comparable to the results in other studies 2, 3.

Seventy five percent

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