Lecture 2 - Disaster Victim Identification and Mass Disasters Flashcards
6 death investigation questions
- Who
- What
- How
- When
- Where
- Why
What is cause of death?
Specific injury or disease that leads to death
What is manner of death?
- determination of how the injury or disease caused the death
- explanation of how the cause arose
Definition of disaster
Unexpected event causing the deaths or injuring many people
3 types of disasters
- open
- closed
- combinations
What is an open disaster?
- unknown individuals with no prior data
- difficult to obtain data following disaster
What is a closed disaster?
- fixed identifiable group e.g. aircraft crash
- comparative ante mortem data can be obtained quickly
What is combination disaster?
- combination of open and closed disaster (e.g. aircraft crash in residential area)
4 steps of disaster management
- collect and analyse information
- identify requirements (equipment and personnel)
- operational plan for victim management
- Information management (families, authorities, media)
Initial analysis of the disaster
- area extent of the scene and numbers dead
- state of the corpses
- evaluation (how long will victim identification take?)
- DVI responders (police/coroner/NZSFO/military)
- body recovery (composition and number of teams)
- transportation of corpses
- storage (refrigeration)
What are the 4 units for a crime scene?
- central emergency rescue unit
- central investigation unit
- victim identification unit
- disaster investigation unit
What does the central emergency rescue unit do?
Recover and treat survivors
What does the central investigation unit do?
Evidence collection and scene-of-crime
What does the victim identification unit do?
Body recovery and evidence collection
What does the disaster investigation unit do?
- determining the cause(s) of disaster
- TAIC: transport accident investigation commission
- CAA: civil aviation authority NZ
What are the teams within the disaster victim identification unit?
- management and communications
- body recovery and evidence collection
- AM team
- PM team
- reconciliation team
- care and counselling team
- identification board
5 DVI phases
- the scene
- post mortem
- ante mortem
- reconciliation
- debrief
Why victim identification?
- certainty
- closure
- criminality
- cash
Methods of identification must be
- scientifically sound
- reliable
- applicable under field conditions
- within reasonable period of time
Methods of identification must NOT be
- photographs
- visual identification by a witness
3 primary methods of identification
- fingerprint analysis
- forensic dental analysis
- DNA analysis
Secondary methods of identification
- personal descriptions/medical findings
- evidence/clothing
5 postmortem data evidence
- fingerprints
- odontology
- DNA profiling
- physical indications
- visual identification (not considered accurate)
Postmortem data - two facts about fngerprints
- highly reliable
- limited value (most fingerprints not on record)
