Ebook: Death investigation : a handbook for police officers

This book is a handbook and practical guide for police death investigators. The book is divided into two sections, one for in-depth reading and the other as a quick reference section. The book defines death and the role of the police death investigator and discusses the various aspects and causes of death. It covers identifying the victim; establishing time of death by post-mortem changes; drowning; gunshot wounds; cutting, stabbing, and blunt trauma; asphyxia by poisoning and other means; deaths due to fire; electrical and lightning deaths; traffic crash-related deaths; deaths due to cocaine; infant death; suicide; homicide; and studies and experiments, including use of computers to document information from the experiments and to create and manipulate databases. It includes data on crime scenes, use of such evidence as blood spatter and fly larvae, and use of hypnosis and psychics in major case investigations. It also contains a comprehensive glossary and photographs from actual cases. The guiding theme of the handbook is that teamwork in death investigations is essential to achieve viable and effective solutions.  Read more...