Hanging

Crimes are usually defined by legislature specific acts performed with certain states of mind, usually termed as “mens rea” that must account for a punishment under law. But the question is about the psychology and sociolgy behind crimes and appropriate punishments. Measures to check crimes and human behaviour by way of punishments is the subject matter of this paper.

Accidental hangings have far common characteristics that cause death in unsuspecting victim’s. It is a
rare medico-legal aspect of death, raising difficulties of differential diagnosis with the suicide hanging
and even with other causes of death. This study presents four observations of accidental hanging
which occurred to three children and an adult, in strange circumstances sometimes. The medico-legal
diagnosis was only possible with the autopsy and the study of the circumstances and the scene of
death.

Introduction: Hanging has become the second most common method of attempted suicide among adolescents and hanging injuries are associated with a high overall mortality rate. Laryngeal injuries were observed in 35% to 45% of victims of hanging at autopsy.
Case presentation: We present a 40-year-old male patient presenting after hanging. On presentation, he was alert with glasgow coma scale (GCS) 15/15 and self-ventilating, but was aphonic with quadriplegia. He suffered from complete upper laryngeal transection. He was successfully intubated in accident & emergency department (A&E), but eventually had tracheostomy with subsequent laryngeal repair. He was immediately transferred to neuro rehabilitation centre.
Conclusion: Airway injuries after hanging can be quite difficult to manage. Tracheostomy is recommended as the method of choice to secure the airway by many authors, because endotracheal intubation may pass into a false track at the site of tracheal separation and obstruct the airway completely

Yale graduate and new chaplain, Abraham Baldwin, first came to the public's attention when his 2nd Brigade, a Connecticut military unit, part of the “Military 'traveling' Masonic lodge,” known as American Union Lodge #1, had arrived with General Washington's army, on December 1, 1779 to winter over in Morristown, N. J.  A Masonic meeting to recommend a new Grand Master met and this delayed Benedict Arnold's trial for his malfeasance as commander in Philadelphia.  Arnold received a mild reprimand from Washington and received the command at West Point. Baldwin gave a "polite discourse" at the Masonic gathering and, as it can not be found, did his  "discourse" extemporaneously.

After spending the coldest winter “in years,” Baldwin and the Army moved to the Hudson River area and in the fall, September 20, 1780, “encamped on the the old ground at Orange-Town, N.Y.” also known as Tappan.  Other chaplains joined the story, one was his brother in law, Joel Barlow. While at Tappan, American General Benedict Arnold betrayed his country dealing with the young British officer, Major John Andre.  Andre was tried by the officers in Tappan and was hanged.  Chaplain Baldwin, this time, wrote our his speech or sermon. And did not give it!  Andre wanted the attention to be only on himself and his bravery in death

He later preached to the mutineers in what appeared to be a threatened uprising in the Continental Army as the American Revolutionary War came to an end.  After the war he moved to Georgia, founded the University of Georgia and went into politics.  He was a signer of the U.S. Constitution.

This systematic review aimed to determine frequency, trend, and lethality of common methods of suicide in Iran through literature in relevant studies by meta-analysis. We searched MeSH heading suicide and/or keyword combinations in published articles in English major databases (PubMed, Scopus, and ISI) and Persian databases (Magiran, Medlib, SID, and Iran Medex). Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we enrolled 47 relevant studies for the final analysis. The data were analyzed based on a random-effects model using Stata11.2. We found that hanging had the highest lethality among suicide methods; so that hanging with 14.9% (95% CI: 12.6, 17.3) and followed by self-immolation with 11.8% (95% CI: 10.2, 13.3) lethality were the common lethal methods. Results showed a decreasing trend in the rate of using lethal methods (β=−0.02, 95% CI: −0.005-0.05), (p=0.017) across the study period. Our results approve this assumption that the rate of using lethal methods for suicide is decreasing in recent years in Iran, perhaps opposite to non-violent methods. This is an important finding that investigators should be assessed it in forward studies to clarify the possible causes.

Hangings is one of the preferred modes of committing suicide nowadays. Cultural, social and psychological aspects have the direct role in the causation of suicide. The present study highlights the various contributory and precipitating factors associated with the suicidal hanging.
Objective: To investigate the socio-demographic profile, motives/modes and incidence of other factors associated with hanging.
Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 122 cases of suicidal hanging at Regional Forensic Science Laboratory, Northern Range, Dharamshala from September 2009 to December, 2014.
Results: Males (68.85%) predominate females (31.15%). Highest incidence was found in the 21-40 age group (66.38%).
Most of the victims were married (70.49%) and belonged to the Hindu religion (95.08%). 15.55% victims were educated and in most of the cases (82.78%) data was not available. According to occupation, 32.78% cases belonged to housewives followed by students in 13.11% cases. 90.16% victims hailed from rural zones. Physical illness, psychiatric illness/mental disorder were the most common factors in 36.06% cases followed by quarrel with spouse in 11.47% cases. 36.88% cases
were reported in the month of January to April. Most of the people (74.59%) preferred indoor closed locations. Rope(43.44%) was the most commonly used ligature material followed by chunni/dupatta (40.16%). Iron guider/beams were used for hanging in 39.34% cases followed by ceiling fan and ceiling hook in 36.06% cases. Dribbling of saliva was present
in 64.75% cases. Seminal discharge was observed in 30.32% cases and urinary incontinence in 42.62% cases. Cyanosis on mouth, tongue and face was noticed in 51.63%, ecchymosis in 36.06% and petechial haemorrhages in 46.72% cases.
Conclusions: The study concludes that young population is more at risk. Most of the people preferred indoor closed locations for committing suicides. Males were more likely to commit suicide by hanging. Physical, psychiatric, mental disorder,quarrel with spouse and drug addiction were major causative factors.