Essay Sample on Injury and Death Investigations

Introduction

Scholars do say every disease has its cause and the same applies in an injury or death. In general, it can be said that every injury or death has its origin; therefore, this calls for the importance and reason for conducting an injury and death investigation. In this case, Coroner Service is responsible for leading investigations to deaths which are unnatural, unattended, unexplained and unexpected. The main aim is to identify the deceased identity and the cause of the demise, and it groups the manner of death as either accidental, suicide, natural, homicide or undetermined. Since many injuries are preventable, it is essential to investigate to identify why it happened and how to prevent it in future. Therefore, this paper aims at providing detailed analysis about injury and death investigation as well as providing the mistakes made and challenges encountered in these investigations.

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The paper will begin by providing the legal definitions that are related to felony assaults and homicides. Felony Assaults are also referred to as Aggravated Assault in some states, which refers to a trial to cause severe bodily injury purposely to another person. It also means an attempt by an individual to create bodily harm knowingly to another using a deadly weapon and statues punish such as assaults in all jurisdictions (Daly & Wilson, 2017). In the other hand, Felonious Homicide refers to the act of killing a person without an excuse or justification while non-felonious homicide is to kill a human being with an explanation or justifiable reason like the police shooting a thief who is armed.

The paper also uncovers the several stages involved in the medico-legal examination which brings to the attention of medical skills to abide by injury and death investigations. In the test, a forensic pathologist is engaged, and a forensic pathologist refers to a subspecialist in the field of pathology whose expertise is the examination of people who die unexpectedly, suddenly or violently. Therefore, his or her primary role is to establish the manner and cause of death, and they are specially trained to be able to perform autopsies to identify the absence or presence of disease, poisoning or injury (Chang, 2014). Also, they are mandated to assess law enforcement investigative data relating to the cause or manner of death, to collect evidence related to medical like the trace evidence as well as secretions, to reconstruct how an individual got injuries and to file a sexual assault. An autopsy is one of the medico-legal examinations, and it is also termed as a post-mortem examination (Chang, 2014). It refers to a dedicated surgical process used to identify the cause and manner of death.

Also, the time of death can be estimated by observation of the individual and several things that should be observed on the body of the deceased include; algor mortis which refers to body temperature, rigor mortis, livor mortis which means lividity, cadaveric spasm that stands for death grip, decomposition changes and finally stomach contents check. Therefore, the combination of these body observations aids in determining or estimating the time that death occurred. Forensic Entomology is the other method that can be applied in evaluating the elapsed time since the death occurred and it mainly focuses on the study of the insects linked with the dead body (Chang, 2014). In making the research successful, a forensic entomology area of the body from which the insects will be collected must be accurately identified.

In evaluating death the proof from wounds, firearm wounds and firearm residue can be essential. For instance, when the body is stroked by a bullet, the skin begins by pushing in followed by perforating while still in the prolonged state and then returns to its normal position. Identifying firearm residue on the individual's hand would be important in assessing the deaths caused by gunshot wounds (Hapeep, Hameed & Jasim, 2017). Also, gunshots differ in the distance such as; a close shot refers to a narrow range discharged a firearm while distant gunshots is a bullet shot at a distance.

The nature of wounds can also be used in evaluating death for example; the incised wounds are commonly known for bleeding a lot, and they are gapping in the centre and narrow at the ends. This type of injuries is usually inflicted by the use of razors or knives. Puncture wounds have no or little bleeding, and at the same they are small. This wound can be overlooked easily, and they are known to be the same to stab wounds in causing death. Laceration wounds are open and irregular in shape. They can be caused by pistols, pipes, clubs, or other blunt objects in an assault (Hapeep, Hameed & Jasim, 2017). The other form is strangulation wounds that cause death by putting pressure on the neck and can either be ligature or manual strangulation wounds. Finally, there are the defense wounds, and they usually occur when a victim is in the attempt to defend himself or herself from an assault which can either be by a club or knife.

The paper also expounds on the reasons for suicide and suicide methods and this aids in investigating injury and death. The following causes were the one identified to result to suicide currently; financial difficulties, actual and perceived humiliation, emotionally disturbing experience, the remorse experienced due to the loss of our loved ones, and revenge (Douglas, 2015). Also, the researchers identified several methods of committing suicide such as; taking sleeping pills, poisons, gases, opiate-overdoses, piercing instruments, high places jumping, shotguns and hanging.

The research uses a case study of fire death investigations, and it identifies the following fact to be considered in such deaths; there should be cooperation and coordination between fire investigators and police, degrees of burning should be identified and classified using the four types of burns. Also, the identification of remains which might be difficult task since fire demolishes human tissues, considerations of the scene and bodies which are burned should be measured, sketched, and photographed. The body should be examined externally and internally both at the morgue and scene. The examinations consist of toxicology, histologic and microscopic examination which is essential in the postmortem and debris or burning should be checked in the air passage (Wagner, 2016). The investigators should always keep several motives of fire deaths in mind. Also, the records of the scene should be taken, and such evidence includes the photographs of the deceased body in its initial position and that of the area in which the body was found.

Challenges Encountered in Injury and Death Investigation

Injury and death investigation has proven to be very complicated and requires a range of expertise such as; situational and forensic analysis, accident sight reconstruction, and exploratory work to determine and put together the evidence relevant for the criminal case. Therefore, they tend to experience accidents which are complicated to reconstruct and collect evidence (Horswell, 2016). Also, the staff might be very experienced but limited in his or her service due to inadequate infrastructure and equipment to conduct the investigations

Privacy laws compel severe restrictions on how to do surveillance and how evidence can be collected by lawyers and investigators. In case any of them is violated the court might decide to exclude the evidence to a more severe legal liability (Horswell, 2016). Also, the investigations might face funding challenges, and these financial issues have led to severe cases being dismissed without a concrete solution to the cause of the injury or death.

The other challenge is that in most circumstances neither the politicians nor the local population appears motivated in addressing the issues. The injury and death investigations system comprises of many stakeholders such as the public health department, law enforcement and the member of the public who are the main beneficially of the information being collected (Horswell, 2016). Therefore, the wiliness of all stakeholder matters a lot in this scenario because of the lack of their co-operation and wiliness might lead to the failure of the investigations.

Mistakes in Injury and Death Investigations

The first mistake is when the hospital pathologists are not aware of the essential objectives of conducting the medico-legal autopsy (Chang, 2014). Therefore, it is worth noting that the main aim of the examination is to provide information that could not be found in an ordinary hospital case. An analysis which is adequate to these medical standards may turn out to be very inadequate in standards of medico-legal.

The second mistake is regarding reports of Autopsy for instance; confusing the cause of death with the manner of death (Becker, Dutelle & Roberts, 2018). In actuality, the death cause is the injury or disease that killed the individual while the manner of death refers to the classification of the death cause which is usually in five categories. Also, mostly in the reports, it is common to find a confusion of homicide with murder but, in reality, the two are not synonyms.

The third mistake occurs when a suicide investigation is being conducted, and such errors include; making an assumption based on the Initial Report that it is a suicide case when in reality it is a death investigation (Horswell, 2016). Also, in most scenarios, it is evidence that the Practical Homicide Investigation is violated since suicide tend not to be handled as a Homicide Investigation in the assumption that the incidents are not criminal hence do not need detective investigation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is vividly clear that conducting injury and death investigations is essential and for the process to be successful there should be sufficient financial resources, experienced investigators and pathologist, and the wiliness of the entire stakeholders in the system is also very essential. Therefore, in the absence of any of the above-listed things lead to challenges in the investigations. Also, it is common to see in an autopsy report, murder being confused with homicide despite not being synonyms while the cause of death being confused with the manner of death. All this can be avoided by being keen while writing the report.

References

Becker, R. F., Dutelle, A. W., & Roberts, B. W. (2018). Criminal investigation. Jones & Bartlett

Learning. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hVBLDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Mistakes+in+Injury+and+Death+Investigations+(criminal+justice)&ots=NIyz8CoNGh&sig=yWIE92kc8_jkQFohCijr0rLJPU4&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Mistakes%20in%20Injury%20and%20Death%20Investigations%20(criminal%20justice)&f=falseChang, K. T. E. (2014). Examination of the placenta: medico-legal implications. In Seminars in

Fetal and Neonatal Medicine (Vol. 19, No. 5, pp. 279-284). WB Saunders. Retrieved from http://www.easybib.com/reference/guide/apa/websiteDaly, M., & Wilson, M. (2017). Homicide: Foundations of human behavior. Routledge.

Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203789872Douglas, J. D. (2015). Social meanings of suicide (Vol. 1242). Princeton University Press.

Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ImF9BgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=reasons+for+suicide+and+suicide+methods+&ots=kdGEiHBrXw&sig=5WWIfEauWTor6q168FdYWmbl3FU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=reasons%20for%20suicide%20and%20suicide%20methods&f=falseHapeep, M. A., Hameed, I. H., & Jasim, A. A. (2017). Risk Factors, Cause and Site of Firearm

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