The Analysis of Victim Wound Quality and Quantity in Assuming

The Perpetrator’s Psychological Condition to Determine The

Perpetrator’s Legal Liability

Ignatius N.S.

, Mieke Sylvia Margaretha

and Ahmad Yudianto

Department of Forensic Science, Postgraduate School, Universitas Airlangga, Jl. Airlangga no. 4-6, Surabaya, Indonesia

Department of Forensic Odontology, Faculty of Dentistry, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

Keywords: Forensic Science, Forensic Psychology, Wound Examination, Insanity

Abstract: In the law enforcement process, cases are often found where the perpetrator/defendant has a psychological

condition that positions them as mentally unstable subjects; or known in the famous plea of “innocent due to

insanity”. Procedurally, the examination to determine one’s mental condition must meet several

requirements as described in Article 44 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) and also Health Act No. 18 of 2014

on Mental Health Article 71; but these conditions tend to be inflexible to the dynamics of Indonesian

society, especially due to the vast plurality and the legal system in Indonesia that are different from other

countries. In addition, these conditions are vulnerable to exploitation as a method of avoiding legal liability

in some cases that have occurred lately because the verification process tends to be held in the court, which

gives the perpetrator some advantages. Therefore, other methods are needed in order to provide additional

data that can raise the objectivity and reliability analysis of law enforcers, such as wound analysis. In this

study, we will compare some medical examination reports with various properties that revolve around

wounds. The conclusion is that there is a correlation between the number of injuries and the victim's manner

of death which, when traced, can provide additional data that can be used to describe the emotional

condition of the perpetrator at the time of the incident. It still needs to be retested with a larger sample to

gain a more valid and reliable result considering the sample used is a coroner's report, and often the reports

are (a) missing or (b) incomplete as attached to them are letters stating ‘not willing to go through autopsy’.

1 INTRODUCTION

Today, in the law enforcement process there are

often cases where the perpetrator/defendant has a

psychological condition that positions the defendant

as a mentally ill subject; in Indonesia it is legally

known as ODMK/ODGJ. Some of the most common

examples are shooting cases in the United States

where the culprit after being captured/identified

tends to be classified as ODMK/ODGJ. Indeed this

does not very often appear in Indonesia, but with

socio-economic conditions that tend to fluctuate this

can be an exploited gap in order to keep the

perpetrators/defendants from prosecution or

punishment.

Globally, the handling of criminal acts involving

actors as ODMK/ODGJ follows and is adapted by

the World Health Organization (WHO) "Guidelines

for the Promotion of Persons with Mental Disorder"

under the UN resolution in Geneva. Locally, in the

process of law enforcement in Indonesia, if the

perpetrator is found with conditions that meet the

criteria already mentioned, the procedure will be

handled under the protection of the Criminal Code

Article 44 and also endorsed by Health Act No. 18

of 2014 on the Mental Health Article 71. Both

regulations are based on the definition of psychology

and psychopathology of insanity, which can be

described as a behavioural or mental pattern that

causes significant distress or impairment (D.F.L.,

2008; Heffner, 2018; Hockenbury & Hockenbury,

2010) of personal functioning such as the cognitive

process of the mind (Hastie & Dawes, 2010).

In addition, based on some experience shared by

fellow Indonesian forensic colleagues, a unique fact

was revealed that the presence of forensic

psychologists in Indonesia tends to be scarce and the

N.S., I., Margaretha, M. and Yudianto, A.

The Analysis of Victim Wound Quality and Quantity in Assuming The Perpetratorâ

Zs Psychological Condition to Determine The Perpetratorâ

Zs Legal Liability.

DOI: 10.5220/0007542003170320

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference Postgraduate School (ICPS 2018), pages 317-320

ISBN: 978-989-758-348-3

317

use of psychological services tends to call in the help

of psychologists from outside the region. Moreover,

if the psychologist is not available then the one

called by the police is a psychiatrist; which also

makes the handling biased and cases more

complicated due to different professional

backgrounds and job focuses, where psychologists

are more concerned with subject detection and

history, while psychiatrists are more in the direction

of medical treatment and drug delivery.

Moreover, the evaluation of a perpetrator’s

psychological condition is imperative for the

criminal investigation (Heillburn, 1992; Klein-

Benheim & Jacobs, 1995) and the advancement of

the scientific scope which can also improve the

value of an expert witness testimony (Solomon,

2017). Based on the explanations that have been

described, it takes a method that could provide

additional examination data that can improve the

objectivity and reliability of the investigator's

analysis in law enforcement. That method is in the

form of wound analysis.

The wound is defined as the breakdown or loss

of some body tissues (Kumar et al., 2007; Potter &

Perry, 2017; Sjamsuhidayat & Jong, 2004;

Budiyanto, 1997; Dorland, 2002). Injury can result

from sharp stabs/blows, blunt objects, accidents,

shots, animal bites, chemicals, hot water, water

vapour, exposure to fire, electricity and lightning

(Murtutik & Marjiyanto, 2013). In some case

development, it is often found that when the victim

is injured with severe damage or with a large

number of injuries, the offender is often the person

diagnosed as ODMK/ODGJ. By pattern, a wound

itself is differentiated into four patterns (Knight,

2002) such as: a) Abrasion like grazes or scratches;

b) Contusion like bruises; c) Laceration like a cut or

tear; and d) Incised Wound like cuts, slashes, stabs,

etc.

So far, the number and pattern of injuries

inflicted by violence/crime in which the offender is

implied as ODGJ/ODMK has not been widely

studied; the wound analysis is often used but only as

a variable to support the analysis of medical

treatment methods and is rarely used in forensic and

law enforcement aspects (Mustafa, 2007). As a past

study concludes, there are factors that can be

described from the condition of the wound regarding

the perpetrator’s mental health condition (Turvey,

2007). Thus, practically, judgment based on this

wound analysis can provide concise, valid and

reliable decisions without the aid of psychological

tests on the psychiatric condition of the offender.

In this study, we will compare some medical

reports that include some of the following criteria:

(1) unnatural death, (2) deaths due to the actions of

others, (3) victims with severe injuries, (4) victims

with a large number of wounds. Researchers also do

not eliminate the possibility of emergence of

interference/restriction that hinders maximum data

retrieval. The interruptions include, among other

things, missing reports and incomplete reports that

do not meet the criteria.

2 MATERIALS AND METHOD

This research method used paralleled literature

reviews on available studies of wounds and the

psychological condition based on DSM-V

guidelines. The data collection process was

conducted at the Department of Forensic Medicine,

RSUD Dr. Soetomo, Surabaya. The methodology of

this research is described as follows;

Figure 1: Methodology of the research

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Based on the data collected, there are approximately

170 cases with the properties that match the criteria

for the studies. But after further inspection, there are

only 40 cases that can be used as data for this study;

which is described in the tables below.

Table 1: Number of reports used in the study.

Year

Number of Cases

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Phase 1

• Collecting of data from mortality reports

with time frame of the past 5 years.

Phase 2

• Sorting the data based on the criteria of

the quantity and quality of the wounds

and the cause of death.

Phase 3

• Analyzing and recording the data.

ICPS 2018 - 2nd International Conference Postgraduate School

318

Year

Number of Cases

2018

TOTAL

Table 2: CoD and MoD comparison of reports used

Table 3: Classification of wounds from the report data

under study.

Year

Type of Wound

Bruise

Abrasion

Stab

Bite mark

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

TOTAL

Figure 2: The 1

bite mark on the body

Figure 2: The 2

bite mark on the body

In one particular case, there is a wound that can

be described as a bite mark (photos below). As per

further research indicates, the perpetrator of the

corresponding case is regarded as mentally ill.

The obstacle in this study is that the sample used

is strictly evidence-based on the report from the

morgue. The researcher cannot determine the exact

validity from the perpetrator’s side due to the fear of

contaminating ongoing investigation. Furthermore,

the pool of the data has reduced from 170 reports to

40 reports due to the impartiality of the reports. The

impartiality is caused by the existence of the letter

for “not undergoing normal autopsy”, which

happens in Indonesia due to the social norms that the

body must not be tampered with and must be quickly

buried.

4 CONCLUSIONS

In this research, it is found that bite marks are more

likely to occur in cases that indicate the victim and

the offender have a kinship/emotional relationship.

This conclusion still needs to be reconfirmed by

increasing the number of samples because cases with

bite marks found in this study account for only one

and the overall types of bite mark lesions tend to be

rare and not even categorized as an individual type

of wound. From the cases, there is a correlation

between the number of injuries and the manner of

death in which in the further search and the manner

of death can provide a partial picture for the

emotional state of the perpetrator. The emotional

picture also needs to be confirmed because this

research did not study the perpetrator’s end for

fearing disturbing ongoing police investigation. By

these results and circumstances, it is concluded that

the psychological measurement of a perpetrator can

not be seen based on the form of his crime, but the

consequences of the offender's offense can be used

to look at the emotional state of the offender at the

time of his/her conduct for further examination if

there is a strong allegation that person is

ODMK/ODGJ.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author conveys gratitude to the staff of the

Department of Forensic Medicine, which also

includes the medical examiners for helping

categorize the reports. The author also conveys

The Analysis of Victim Wound Quality and Quantity in Assuming The Perpetratorâ

Zs Psychological Condition to Determine The

Perpetratorâ

Zs Legal Liability

319

gratitude to Mr. Pudji Hardjanto for giving expert

opinions based on his experience in law enforcement

for this research.

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APPENDIX

ODGJ: Orang Dengan Gangguan Jiwa (person with

mental disorder)

ODMK: Orang Dengan Masalah Kejiwaan (person

with psychiatric problems)

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