Forensic Death Investigation

Forensic Death Investigation is an investigations and certifying the cause and manner of unnatural and unexplained deaths, that includes homicides, suicides, unintentional injuries, drug-related deaths, and other deaths that are sudden or unexpected. Death investigations provide evidence to convict the guilty and protect the innocent, whether they are accused of murder, child maltreatment, neglect, or other crimes.

Death investigations are critical for many aspects of public health practice and research, most often in injury prevention and control but also in prevention of suicide, violence, or substance abuse. Professionals involved in death investigations need to be more active in trying to understand the problem of wrongful convictions and in supporting organized efforts to expedite disciplinary actions. And death investigations are emerging as critically important in evaluating the quality of health care.

Death investigations are carried out by coroners or medical examiners. Their role is to decide the scope and course of a death investigation, which include Forensic Science examining the body, determining whether to perform an autopsy, and ordering x-ray, toxicology, or other laboratory tests. Greater understanding of the circumstances of wrongful convictions is imperative. The study is also examining errors in witness identification and false confessions.

The medicolegal death investigation system could be improved by: Creating a referral-based medical examiner system, insuring that death investigation systems are headed by trained and qualified medical professionals and increasing the investment in personnel and facilities.

Regards

Veronica
Editorial Coordinator
Journal of Forensic Toxicology and Pharmacology
SciTechnol Journals
editor.jftp@scitecjournals.com