Technical Lecture - The Biomechanics of sharp force injuries
Technical lecture
22 November 2021 17:30 - 18:30
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Description
For the year ending March 2021, there were 44,286 knife crimes recorded in the UK which was a decrease of 15% on the previous year. The overall decrease was attributed to a reduction in stranger crime in periods coinciding with national lockdowns because of Covid. In the same time period, there were 600 homicides in the UK. Of the 600 deaths, 238 (39%) were owing to use of a knife or sharp instrument. The proportion of homicides from knife or sharp injuries annually has been consistently at or around the 40% level for a long period. In all countries were guns are not widely available, stabbing is the most common way of committing murder. In order to better understand how the forces involved in stabbing relate to those generated by volunteers, we used a novel dynamometer to allow the forces for stabbing into skin simulant, pork leg and pork rib to be measured. The forces generated were significantly greater than those required to penetrate skin with a sharp implement. The results show that the key criteria for whether or not an implement penetrates skin is whether or not the tip is sufficiently sharp to puncture skin and clothes at the force generated by the person stabbing.The results of stabbing tests with knives, screwdrivers, bottles and with the presence of clothes is discussed.
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Speaker(s)
Sarah Hainsworth OBE FREng CEng CSci FIMMM is Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean for the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Aston University and a Professor of Materials and Forensic Engineering.
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United Kingdom