Citation

Brinkmann B, Karger B, Barz J, Kleiber M, Schröpfer D, Staak M. Arch. Kriminol. 1998; 201(5-6): 129-136.

Vernacular Title

Die Kremationsleichenschau--formaler Akt ohne Effizienz?

Affiliation

Institut für Rechtsmedizin, Universität Münster.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Verlag Schmidt-Romhild)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9701747

Abstract

A multicentre study involving 36 out of 38 German medico-legal Institutes discovered 784 non-natural fatalities among 78,000 external examinations before cremation (1%) in 1995. These included 169 accidents, 16 suicides, 3 homicides and 589 deaths in connection with medical treatment. In the remaining 7 cases, a belated differentiation between homicide and accident was not successful. A linear projection results in 1980 non-natural fatalities among all 197,000 external examinations before cremation. This number includes 8 homicides but due to considerable inhomogeneities, a number of 40 homicides appears to be realistic. Consequently, abolishing the mandatory external examination before cremation would be equivalent to an official renouncement of solving relevant non-natural deaths. In case of a thorough external examination, a total of 18,000 non-natural fatalities including approximately 180 homicides could be detected per year during the first external examinations (n = 885,000).

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