New research from Professor Belinda Carpenter
Police are ill-equipped to investigate non-criminal deaths and face a challenge to avoid re-traumatising bereaved families as well as emotionally protecting themselves, according to QUT research.
Investigating death: the emotional and cultural challenges for police found it was usually junior officers sent to sudden death investigations and tasked with not only gathering evidence, but also comforting family members and explaining the coronial process.
The research has been published in Policing and Society.
“The vast majority of deaths are neither suspicious nor violent. For example, of the 28,563 recorded deaths in Queensland in 2011/12, 4,461 were reported to the coroner,” lead researcher Professor Belinda Carpenter, from QUT’s School of Justice, said.
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