Forensic Emergency Medicine

摘要

Evolution is a wonderful thing, but even Darwin would be disappointed by the characteristics shown by the current market leaders. Almost uniquely in nature, we exhibit the ability to inflict severe and damaging physical and sexual violence on each other, for reasons not involving our own survival or territorial dominance. Something has gone badly wrong. A recent BMJ editorial suggested banning the use of the word "accident" on the grounds that injury results from events that are predictable and preventable, rather than by chance (BMJ 2001;322:1320-1321). There is certainly nothing unexpected about the scale of interpersonal violence, endemic worldwide, with universally recognisable patterns, both in the nature of the assaults and their physical and emotional sequelae. Surprisingly, the total volume of violent crime has fallen in the United States, although child and elder abuse and neglect, sexual assault, and domestic violence have now reached astronomical levels.