A Comparative Study of Medical Examiner/Coroner Offices in the United States

项目总结/摘要 原住民，黑人和拉丁裔人在警察遭遇中不成比例地被杀害 而这些谋杀案很少被起诉许多社会正义驱动的研究， 警察暴力集中于支配法律的法律的和政治干预 执法实践。这个项目采取了一种不同的方法， 尸检，美国法医/验尸官系统，以及国家长期以来的 警察和国家批准的针对有色人种社区的暴力行为的遗产。的 法医/验尸官系统在美国发挥着不可或缺的作用，但往往 被忽视的，在确定警察是否对死亡负责， 发生在他们的监护下。然而，法医/验尸官的报告很少能确定 即使有证据表明不是警察的责任。该项目承担 根据媒体和联邦政府关于全国死亡的数据进行的档案研究 在警方拘留下恢复和记录三个医疗记录的历史， 验尸官/验尸官办公室在英国时期发挥了关键作用， 移民殖民主义、美帝国西进和种族隔离 在黑人社区大迁移到北方城市之后。为此中央 项目将要求和分析图像，文件，缩微胶片和其他材料，从 弗吉尼亚州詹姆斯敦的法医办公室， 在殖民地时期建立的办公室。该项目还将研究洛杉矶 Angeles Medical Examiner Office成立于瓜达尔卡邦伊达尔戈条约（1848年）之后 这个城市是当今世界的监禁中心。最后，我们将研究 密歇根州底特律市韦恩县医学检查员的历史，这是全国 这个种族隔离最严重的城市正在经历快速的中产阶级化。通过这些努力， 该项目旨在编写一本同行审查的专著，一系列文章， 公共受众，并制定改革公共部门的政策建议 法医/验尸官制度。该项目旨在提供有关 美国法医系统的历史和尸检科学的政治， 告知公共卫生官员，社区活动家，立法者和学术界的工作 致力于追踪法律的干预导致的死亡率和创造社会正义的学者 在警务、执法和监禁方面的改革。

Project Summary/Abstract Native, Black, and Latinx people are disproportionately killed during police encounters and these murders are rarely prosecuted. Much of the social justice-driven research on police violence has focused on legal and political interventions that govern law enforcement practices. This project takes a different approach by examining the science of the autopsy, the American medical examiner/coroner system, and the nation’s long legacy of policing and state-sanctioned violence against communities of color. The medical examiner/coroner system in the United States plays an integral, but often overlooked, role in determining whether police are held accountable for deaths that occur under their custody. However, medical examiner/coroner reports rarely establish police culpability even when evidence indicates otherwise. This project undertakes archival research informed by media and federal government data on nationwide death under police custody to recover and document the history of three medical examiner/coroner offices that have played pivotal roles during the periods of English settler colonialism, the westward expansion of American empire, and racial segregation following the Great Migration of Black communities to Northern cities. To this end, the project will request and analyze images, documents, microfilm, and other materials from the medical examiner office in Jamestown, Virginia, the country’s first medical examiner office founded during the era of colonial settlement. This project will also study the Los Angeles Medical Examiner Office founded after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) in the city that is the current incarceration center of the world. Finally, we will study the history of the Wayne County Medical Examiner in Detroit, Michigan which is the nation’s most racially segregated city now undergoing rapid gentrification. Through these efforts, the project seeks to produce a peer-reviewed book monograph, a series of articles for public audiences, and the development of policy recommendations for reforming the medical examiner/coroner system. This project intends to offer new insights about the history of the U.S. medical examiner system and the politics of autopsy science that will inform the work of public health officials, community activists, lawmakers, and academic scholars working on tracking mortality from legal intervention and creating social justice reforms within policing, law enforcement, and incarceration.