Description

1. Describe a few ethical issues when investigating death scenes and explain how violating these can impact an investigation.

One ethical issue when investigating a death scene would be investigators not being respectful or taking the matter of the scene lightly. As an investigator it’s their duty to protect the body from view of others and to protect the crime scene. Them not being respectful of that or taking the matter lightly would be a violation because from the outside looking in, the deceased loved one’s might think that they don’t care enough to process the scene properly or to get them the answers that’s needed. Another ethical issue would be investigators thinking and treating all death investigations as the same. No two cases are alike. There might be some similarities but not alike. Thinking that you’ve dealt with a case like this before and treating it as such could be a violation because important clues could be overlooked. The investigator is already biased and expecting the outcome of the new case to be the same as the old case when that could very well not be the case at all. Investigators should proceed new cases with an open mind. There’s nothing with referring make to a case that’s similar but it should be a referral not doing things the same.

2. Identify and explain some of the job-related stressors faced by medicolegal death investigators and homicide detectives, and further explain some of the most common warning signs of stress and what some appropriate coping mechanisms would be.