It’s a melancholy commentary on Cape Town that scientists turn to the city to examine deadly violence. Studies published in the last few days reveal that young men from poor areas bear the brunt of brutality in a city where murder is the second highest contributor to unnatural deaths‚ and which lays claim to the world’s ninth highest murder rate. One of the studies‚ by three University of Cape Town (UCT) pathologists‚ looked at 828 cases in which murder victims died as a result of blunt force trauma. The other‚ by a University of the Western Cape physiotherapist‚ examined spinal cord injuries caused by bullets. In the first‚ published in the South African Journal of Science‚ the UCT team looked at autopsy reports from Salt River Mortuary between 2010 and 2014. The mean age of victims of blunt force homicide victims was 31‚ and just more than 90% of them were men. "Clearly‚ South African men of working age behave in a manner that puts them at greater risk of violent injury than ... w...
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