This study analyzes data from the 2018 Census of Medical Examiner and Coroner Offices (CMEC) to provide an update on the extent of medicolegal death investigations (MDIs) on federal and state-recognized tribal lands.
This analysis begins to elucidate gaps in the nation's understanding of medicolegal death investigations (MDI) on tribal lands. Death investigation on tribal lands and of American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) people is complex and not well documented. An analysis of data from the 2018 Census of Medical Examiner and Coroner Offices (CMEC) provides a timely update on the extent of medicolegal death investigations (MDIs) on federal and state-recognized tribal lands. An estimated 150 MEC offices serve tribal lands; however, 44 % of these offices (i.e., 4 % of MEC offices) do not track cases from tribal lands separately. MEC offices with a population of 25,000 to 250,000 that serve tribal lands had more resources and access to information to perform MDIs than all other MEC offices. Analysis also indicates that the median number of unidentified human remains cases from MECs serving tribal lands is 6 times higher than that of jurisdictions not serving tribal lands. (Published Abstract Provided)
Similar Publications
- Forgotten Spaces: The Structural Disappearance of Migrants in South Texas, chapter in The Marginalized in Death: A Forensic Anthropology of Intersectional Identity in the Modern Era
- Verified Human Trafficking Allegations Among Single and Dual System-Involved Children: Predicting Initial and Repeat Victimization
- Just Science Podcast: Just Resolving a Capital Murder Case in Denton, Texas