Death Investigation Systems

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 Timmermans1 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 populations,

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