Investigating death: the emotional and cultural challenges for police

Abstract

The over-representation of vulnerable populations within the criminal justice system, and the role of police in perpetuating this, has long been a topic of discussion in criminology. What is less discussed is the way in which non-criminal investigations by police, in areas like a death investigation, may similarly disadvantage and discriminate against vulnerable populations. In Australia, as elsewhere, it is police who are responsible for investigating both suspicious and violent deaths like homicide as well as non-suspicious, violent deaths like accidents and suicides. Police are also the agents tasked with investigating deaths which are neither violent nor suspicious but occur outside hospitals and other care facilities. This paper, part of a larger funded Australian research project focusing on the ways in which cultural and religious differences are dealt with during the death investigation process, reports on how police describe -or are described by others -during their role in a non-suspicious death investigation, and the challenges that such investigations raise for police and policing. The employment of police liaison officers is discussed as one response to the difficulty of policing cultural and religious difference with variable results.

Doing Death Work: A Mixed Method Examination of Imprinted Events and Behavioral Responses of Medical Examiner Office Staff

“…Other studies focus more directly on these professionals' behavioral, maladaptive, and adaptive responses to the work they perform (Adams, Anderson, Turner, & Armstrong, 2011;Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Carpenter, Tait, Quandrelli, & Thompson, 2016;Koch, 2010). Finally, some prior qualitative studies give in-depth attention to one particular behavioral or adaptive response to the profession's demands, such as dark humor (Vivona, 2014;Scott, 2007) or the structure and process of how professionals open up and discuss death and trauma with their colleagues (Howard, Tuffin, & Stephens, 2000).…”

“…Finally, some prior qualitative studies give in-depth attention to one particular behavioral or adaptive response to the profession's demands, such as dark humor (Vivona, 2014;Scott, 2007) or the structure and process of how professionals open up and discuss death and trauma with their colleagues (Howard, Tuffin, & Stephens, 2000). Seven of these prior studies acknowledged the role of professional and organizational culture in job-related stressors and behavioral, adaptive, and maladaptive responses (Adams, Anderson, Turner, & Armstrong, 2011;Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Carpenter, Tait, Quandrelli, & Thompson, 2016;Dabney, Copes, Tewksbury, & Hawk-Tourtelot, 2013;Howard, Tuffin, & Stephens, 2000;Koch, 2010;Vivona, 2014). In addition, recently Casas, & Benuto (2021) merged each of these factors (culture, job stressors, and behavioral, adaptive, and maladaptive responses) into one conceptual framework with five overarching themes: the idealization of the job, disillusionment with the job, on-the-job trauma exposure, trauma sequelae, and coping with trauma.…”

Safety Issues in Young Chinese Overseas Students: A Canadian Case Study

“…When a death is not thought to be suspicious, it means nobody else was involved" [8]. The police investigates both suspicious, violent death like homicide and non-suspicious, violent deaths like accidents and suicides [9]. Based on the suicide notes that Yu's parents and Yan's female friend received from WeChat, Yu's death was considered as a case of suicide.…”

From Colonial Coroner to American Medical Examiner: A Way Forward in Sri Lankan Death Investigation System

“…One of the main challenges faced by the legal system is to facilitate a credible and objective process to investigate a death, thence the justice with convicting the guilty and protecting the innocent. [2] • History of death investigation systems (DIS) Origin of Forensic science has a long history way back to thousand years and documented in China in an early transcript of the text, Washing Away of Wrongs by Sung Tz'u written in 1248AD. [3] The first recorded case of a death investigation by a medical expert refers to the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC where an Ancient Roman Physician Antistius examined the dead body and concluded that out of twenty-three stabs, only one penetrating injury between left third and fourth ribs was fatal.…”