Victims of assault attending casualty departments

Victims of assault make up about 8% of all adult injury cases. The purpose of this study was to analyse the personal characteristics and injuries of 518 victims of assault (=case material) and 496 accidentally injured (=controls), selected at random in a large casualty department. The proportion of males was higher among the assault cases than among controls (76 vs. 61%). Assault victims were more concentrated in the age range 15 to 44 years (81 vs. 64%). Fifty per cent of the cases and 8% of the controls were intoxicated, while the rates of chronic misuse of alcohol were 37 and 18%, respectively. Forty seven per cent of the cases and 18% of the controls arrived at night. Assault cases had sustained mostly minor head injuries. However, injuries needing referral to the ENT department or Dept. of jaw surgery were also common. Casualty departments are well suited to victim studies. Additional information as to social background, criminality and psychiatric morbidity of victims is needed.