| Abstrakt: |
Homicide can be construed as one of three types of violent deaths, the other two being suicide and accident. Considering violent deaths more generally leads to more general questions of deviance and violence. Following this argument, one can compare mortality rates for violent deaths to examine whether death is a social invariant. The possibility of differences between distributions of violent deaths prompts the question of what the sources of variation could be. According to a medico-legal perspective, a death can be natural, accidental, suicidal or homicidal. The factors differentiating those four types are the lethal intent and its locus. Attributing intent is a difficult matter, implying that the categorization may represent more of a continuum, leaving room for uncertainty and error. This research analyzes the different types of violent deaths according to a comparative social constructionist perspective to identify the processes and factors at play in their classification as homicide, suicide, or accident. The author proposes a comparative case study of practices at the Regional Medical Examiner's Office in Newark, New Jersey and at the Institut Médico-Légal in Rennes, France. The research encompass a dual approach, combining systematic observations of autopsies and death scene investigation and archive data collection. Qualitative materials extracted are analyzed through process tracing, congruence testing and event-structure analysis. Quantitative materials extracted are analyzed using multinomial regressions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
