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

项目摘要/摘要 土著、黑人和拉丁裔人在与警察的交锋中被杀的比例不成比例 而这些谋杀案很少被起诉。许多以社会正义为导向的研究 警察暴力的重点是管理法律的法律和政治干预。 执法实践。这个项目采取了一种不同的方法，通过检查科学 尸检，美国法医/验尸官制度，以及国家的 警察的遗产和国家批准的针对有色人种社区的暴力。这个 法医/验尸官制度在美国发挥着不可或缺的作用，但往往 在确定警方是否要对以下死亡事件负责方面被忽视 在他们的监管下发生。然而，法医/验尸官的报告很少能确定 即使有证据表明情况并非如此，警察也有责任。这个项目承担了 由媒体和联邦政府数据提供的全国范围内死亡的档案研究 在警方拘留下恢复和记录三名医生的病历 在英语课程期间发挥关键作用的检验员/验尸官办公室 殖民者殖民主义、美国帝国向西扩张和种族隔离 在黑人社区向北方城市大迁徙之后。为此， Project将请求并分析图像、文档、缩微胶片和其他材料 弗吉尼亚州詹姆斯敦的法医办公室是美国第一位法医 该办公室成立于殖民殖民时代。该项目还将研究洛杉矶 《瓜达卢佩·伊达尔戈条约》(1848)后成立的洛杉矶法医办公室 在这座城市，这是目前世界上的监禁中心。最后，我们将研究 密歇根州底特律的韦恩县验尸官的历史是全国 种族隔离程度最高的城市正在经历快速的士绅化。通过这些努力， 该项目寻求制作一本同行评议的图书专著，为 公众受众，以及制定改革的政策建议 法医/验尸官制度。本项目旨在提供有关 美国法医制度的历史和尸检科学的政治将 告知公共卫生官员、社区活动家、立法者和学术界的工作 致力于追踪法律干预的死亡率和创造社会正义的学者 在警务、执法和监禁方面进行改革。

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.