Role of Forensic Science in ID of Mistreatment Deaths

Project Summary for 2002-IJ-CX-K018 In 1999, the State of Arkansas enacted a law requiring nursing homes to report all deaths to their local coroner. The goals of this research project are to outline the coroner's investigation process, explore the details of investigations that are suspicious for mistreatment, idenfity barriers to accurate assessments, and report how this data compares with nursing home death investigations on a national level. This information will be vital to producing a forensic marker "guide" for coroners to determine cases of abuse and neglect. ca/ncf