31

Death

Investigation

Systems

randall e. Frost

Contents

4.1 Introduction 31

4.2 Early Death Investigation 3 1

4.3 The Coroner System 3 5

4.4 Modern American Death Investigation Systems 38

4.5 Death Certification 4 2

4.5.1 Cause of Death 45

4.5.2 Manner of Death 47

4.6 Facets of a Modern Death Investigation Office 49

4.7 Quality Assurance 56

4.8 Summary 58

References 58

4.1 Introduction

Throughout human history, the inevitability of death has inspired not only
a sense of fear, but also a paradoxical sense of fascination and curiosity. It is
no surprise then that the investigation of death has a long and varied history,
intimately involved with the rise and governance of human populations. The
sociologist Stefan Timmermans^1 has noted that death is not an individual
event, but a social one, and every developed society has had an interest in the
phenomenon, be it from a legal or public health viewpoint in modern popu-
lations, or as part of a mythic or superstitious worldview in earlier societies.
Beliefs about the phenomenon of death have also been inexorably linked to
religious systems throughout history.2–4

4.2 Early Death Investigation

The most primitive societies likely had a well-developed sense of the causative

relationship of trauma, old age, and illness to death, and early “investigations”

4