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Journal article
Operationalizing the structural vulnerability profile within the medical examiner context
Forensic science international. Synergy, Vol.6, 100334
2023
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Abstract
The medicolegal death investigation process in the United States, historically focused on personal identification and determination of cause and manner of death, has evolved in recent decades to include space for advocacy centered around public health. Particularly, in the domain of forensic anthropology, practitioners have begun to incorporate a structural vulnerability perspective on human anatomical variation, with the goals of articulating the social determinants of ill health and early death and ultimately influencing public policy. This perspective has explanatory power far beyond the anthropological sphere. In this piece, we argue that biological and contextual indicators of structural vulnerability can be incorporated into medicolegal reporting with potentially powerful impacts on policy. We apply theoretical frameworks from medical anthropology, public health, and social epidemiology to the context of medical examiner casework, highlighting the recently proposed Structural Vulnerability Profile developed and explored in other articles in this special issue. We argue that: 1. Medicolegal case reporting provides a valuable opportunity to record a faithful accounting of structural inequities in the annals of death investigation, and 2. Existing reporting infrastructure could, with limited modifications, provide a powerful opportunity to inform State and Federal policy with medicolegal data, presented within a structural vulnerability framework.
•Traditional forensic anthropology praxis emphasizes the biological profile and evidence informing cause and manner of death.•The SVP expands standard praxis to include observations of marginalization experienced across the decedent's life.•Incorporation of the SVP into existing medicolegal infrastructure enables faithful reporting of structural inequities.•Reporting the SVP can inform public health initiatives and State and Federal policy to stop preventable suffering and death.•Forensic experts involved in medicolegal death investigation can play an additional, public health-focused role.
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- Title
- Operationalizing the structural vulnerability profile within the medical examiner context
- Publication Details
- Forensic science international. Synergy, Vol.6, 100334
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Elsevier B.V
- Number of pages
- 10
- Identifiers
- 99380185519206600
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology; College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities
- Language
- English