@2024 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 1027-1457    Scientific Journal of Forensic Medicine 2018;24(3):185-192

Background
The quarrel has emerged as a problematic phenomenon in the North Khorasan province, which has a multi-ethnic population.
Previous Studies
[1-3]… .The phenomenon of individual quarrels is most evident in areas of the country that are influenced by traditional values and less tendency to the observance of laws. On the other hand, unfortunately in some cultures, violence and quarrel are still the indicators of power or the defense of social, cultural and family dignity (4). …[5,6].One of the effective psychological and individual factors on quarrel tendency is lack of anger control skills (7). It has been shown that there is a significant negative relationship between anger control skills and a tendency to collective quarrel (8)…[9-15].
Aim(s)
The aim of this research was to epidemiologic and demographic investigate of the quarrel cases referred to the legal medicine departments of North Khorasan province.
Research type
This research is a descriptive survey study that was carried out on the cases s.
Research society, place and time
All the cases were referred from the criminal and penal courts of the province [N=2258] were examined during the four months (June to September 2016).
Sampling method and number

Used devices&materials
In this regard, a questionnaire was designed and distributed among the people who referred to legal medicine because of participation in a quarrel. The questionnaire contains the variables such as gender of the assailant and assaulted and the family relationship between them, date of the quarrel, referral date to legal medicine, ethnicity, location of quarrel, job, income, education, the causes of the quarrel, and the factors causing the injury. All variables were recorded and completed by the statements of the referring individual and the reception unit of the legal medical center of each county. The data were analyzed by SPSS 19 software. Chi-square test was used for the investigation of significant relationship between some of the variables. In this test, that is applicable for nominal variables, the expected frequency from the values of a variable is computed and then it is compared to the observed frequency.
Findings by Text
Age average of the subjects was 43/12±13/79. Of 2258 people who were injured in the quarrels, 1551 people were males and 705 people were females. The most of the job frequency was related to the self-employment with the frequency of 955 people (%42/29), the laborer job with the frequency of 458 people and homemaking with 3974 people (%17/45) and the low frequency was related to the agriculture job with the frequency of 20 people (%0/89). 1827 subjects (%89/91) had not the history of referred to the legal medicine because of quarrel. The 454 cases of the quarrel happened during the days of Ramadan. 941 subjects had a family relationship with the assailant or assailants. 2027 people of the subjects were unemployed or with an income less than 1 million Toman in a month, 148 subjects had an income between 1 or 2 million Toman in a month and 46 subjects had an income higher than 2 million Toman on a month (Table 1). The age range of 19-37 had the most frequency of quarrel. The youngest assaulted person was 1 year old (N=5) and the oldest was 88 years old (N=1). In 45.00% of collective quarrels, the victim was from the Kord or Kermanj ethnicity. The most common reasons for the quarrels was family problems (27.72%) and failure to respect the rights of others (15.92%). Personal hostility with the frequency of 8.23% was in the third rank of the reasons for quarrel. 70.51% of the subjects referred to legal medicine two days after the quarrel. The average time interval between the quarrel and the time of referral to the legal medicine was 3.20 days. Considering the number of days of the weeks in the period of this research, it was observed that the number of quarrels on Friday and Saturday were 10.72% and 7.14% more than the expected number of quarrel, respectively. However, this difference was not statistically significant at 95% confidence level (p = 0.12). In 1529 cases of the collective quarrel (67.71%), natural factors were used and in 407 cases (18.02%) the predetermined tools were used. The most common weapon used in the quarrel was a knife. Sharp objects, rod, and Qama (fighting knife) were in the next ranks (Table 2).
Main comparison to the similar studies
There was no significant difference between the months of the quarrel occurrence (from June to September). However, it can be seen that the number of quarrels in the cold months is significantly lower than in the other months through examining the available statistics on the legal medicine site of North Khorasan province (16) and comparing the number of quarrels occurring in the different months of the year. This result is also have reported in the forensic medicine reports of the country (17). Warming and reducing the threshold tolerance of people could be one of the reasons for the increase of quarrel in the hot months of the year. A significant number of the subjects, who referred to the legal medicine, had no college education income, and the income of a significant percentage of them was less than 1 million Toman in a month. In a study has shown that a low level of education and income can lead to violent crime among the psychedelic drugs users (15).
Suggestions
The officials can provide solutions to reduce the conflict and its negative effects in the province, by recognizing the state of quarrel in the province.
Limitations
The weaknesses of the present study were lack of considering the place of residence of the subjects as well as their use or non-use of drugs.
Conclusions
The obtained results regarding the frequency of place of quarrel occurrence, the relationship between the assailant and assaulted, cause of quarrel and the marital status of the victims show that family foundation in the province is threatened by violence.
Acknowledgments
The authors of this article would like to thank all the staff of legal medicine offices of the North Khorasan province and Ms. Fatemeh Abolhosseini, the bachelor degree student of Kowsar University of Bojnourd, who contributed in data collection of the research.
Conflict of interest
There was no conflict of interests.
Ethical Permissions
The ethical principles were respected in this study.
Funding Sources
This study funded by the legal medicine research center of the country.

TABLES and CHARTS

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