The four types of death are the four key classes in which death can happen that a pathologist will try to find when he or she is examining the dead. A natural death is a type of death when the body stops to function of its own consensus or if there are justifying health factors such as incurable disease, heart disease or similar, which would result in death. A murder is the taking of one person’s life by another person by way of a pre-considered murder (Adcock & Chancellor, 2013). The term pre-considered means to have intentionally premeditated and performed the murder of another person mercilessly while trying to escape being arrested by the law enforcement. An accidental death is the demise of a person that does not fall under any of the three other categories – homicide, natural death, and suicide. Unintentional demise can sometimes be homicide – a murder but based on an instinctive display of fierceness towards other people (Adcock & Chancellor, 2013).
Similarly, accidental death can also be considered a death by mishap. This means that the object has passed away fortuitously either while doing something forbidden or by taking risks that would represent a threat to their lives. A lot of sports contestants have deceased during the life-threatening sports events and their deaths have been characterized as death by mishap because of the risky nature of their activities (Adcock & Chancellor, 2013). Suicide is a cautious taking of an individual’s own life as a result of an unbearable emotional suffering frequently caused by misery and depression. Suicide cannot be classified as an accidental or a natural death merely for the reason that the individual has got down to a strategy that would end with their own certain demise (Adcock & Chancellor, 2013). Typically, this would happen by the means of a medication overdose, the wounding of one’s wrists to encourage an uncontainable act of bleeding, or firmly stepping out to get hit by a moving car.
The crucial aspect that law enforcement agency uses to categorize the type of death is evidence, the examination of the body, the proceedings that caused the individual’s demise, and eyewitness reports (Frances, 2012). One supplementary feature that the police should accumulate for a death study are the probable motivations that people may have in wishing a human being deceased. Before the death has been considered a murder, it may complement the evidence concerning the thinkable reasons of why a person may be trying to cover the important information about the demise of the individual. There are two types of homicide – definite and plausible. Speaking of the definite murders, the major part of fierce or apprehensive deaths that can be seen in the historical log can be categorized definitely as murders or non-murders (Frances, 2012). In most examples, the law enforcement agents were certain that a murder had been committed, and the evidence is convincing. There are also plausible murders, where there is a high probability that most of the residual cases of alleged or testified homicides were also murders. The police were certain that a murder had been committed, and the indications are considerable. These cases are characterized as plausible. Cases were also categorized as plausible if a single, unconcealed statement of a murder was shown in a trusted local paper, for the reason that such statements were habitually sustained if supplementary evidence was presented (Frances, 2012).
One of the most obvious reasons for examining a death case in contrast to other categories of misconducts is that there might not even be an act of breaking the law connected to the death. It may have been ordinary reasons or misfortune that triggered an individual’s death. It may also be that someone may just arrange it in a specific way to escape with their lawbreaking. One more difference is that the category of decease is not overtly superficial when utmost crimes are really easy to say that it was a theft or the consuming of narcotic substances prohibited by the law (Adcock & Chancellor, 2013). Correspondingly, a case that involves death may necessitate more labor force than the majority of other categories of cases because of the gravity of the crime.
The objective and key process of a preliminary death investigation are to find out and specify how the individual really died and if it meets the requirements of a homicide. If it does, it will require being investigated to find the criminal. Unintentional death and natural death both underline that there was no crime involved in death by any other party. Suicide is still illegal in some states and is considered a crime. On the other hand, if it were an assisted suicide, the individual that committed the suicide would not be penalized as they had passed away. All the deaths should be thoroughly investigated (Adcock & Chancellor, 2013).
One of the main aspects that may impact the medical inspection and autopsy in death investigations is the environment. Environmental evaluation, together with temperature, wind conditions, central heating or refrigeration systems, and dampness must be performed at a death scene so that the influence of the environment on a deceased can be recognized (Adcock & Chancellor, 2013). The evaluation as well takes into consideration the types of fabric and jewelry. This data may be required to assist in stating the time a person was last seen alive.
References
Adcock, J. M., & Chancellor, A. S. (2013). Death Investigations. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Frances, R. (2012). Homicide, Suicide, and Unintentional Firearm Fatality: Comparing the United States with Other High-Income Countries. Yearbook of Psychiatry and Applied Mental Health, 2012, 180-181. Web.