Psychological Autopsy –An Unmined Investigative Technique

Abstract

Investigative techniques are continuously upgraded as per the requirement of crimes. Some of the conventional investigative techniques like 3degree interrogation are to an extent eliminated and more emphasis is given to the use of psychological investigative approaches. Psychological autopsy is one of the approaches adopted when physical autopsy fails to give the actual manner or cause of death.  According to conventional NASH classification, the manner of death can be Natural, Accidental, Suicide, or Homicide. However, at times it will be difficult to distinguish, thus in such “equivocal deaths” (manner of death is uncertain or immediately not clear), psychological autopsy is conducted along with physical autopsy. 

A psychological autopsy can be defined as “A post-mortem investigative procedure requiring the identification and assessment of suicide risk factors present at the time of death, with the goal of enabling a determination of the manner of death to as high a degree of certainty as possible.” Or in the simpler form, it refers to the mental state of the person prior to his/her death. The concept was developed around 1958 as a result of the collaboration of Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office to Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center in distinguishing drug-related accidental overdoses from suicides. It resulted in the formation of the basic procedural principle of psychological autopsy and the director of LA Suicide Prevention Center, Edwin S. Shneidman coined the term “Psychological Autopsy”.