Roles in an Investigation - Essay Example

Roles in an Investigation Psychology is a wide field of study that for the last few decades has drawn much attention from scholars and researchers in their endeavors. Homicide has received mixed interpretations from psychologists, causing an unending controversy of its meaning to scholars. However, Malmquist (2006) argues that homicide is killing of one’s human being by another. If homicide is justified then it is not a crime because the killing may have occurred in self-defense, which justifies killing another to protect one’s life from an attack which may be deadly. In this investigation, I would play the role of helping the investigators carry out their duties to know the cause of the death and act as a counselor as well. I would do research and aid in investigating all the possible reasons that might have caused the Chief’s death. After identifying the cause of the death, I would know the cause of the death, as well as the possible criminal responsible for the act. Therefore, the issue leading to the death of the chief would be discussed and counseling would be a major role to play to help people prevent future reoccurrence of the incidents. By playing a role of counseling, I would also assist the affected family to recover quickly from stress show them how to deal with problems and handle them effectively. Kocsis (2009) believes that the concept of psychology autopsy is not a simple concept hence hard to explain. He depicts that psychology autopsy is a mechanism that is largely recognized for evaluating possible circumstances that were behind a certain death. Further still, other psychologists consider it as a research paradigm in which all the types and reasons that may lead an individual to committing suicide are studied. Despite the fact that its operational application has its origin from coroner’s investigation, it developed to a point where the state of mind of the deceased person is evaluated. This reconstruction is usually based on information that is obtained from individual documents, police reports, and interviews with friends or the families, medical records and other people who had the contact with the victim before his death. The purpose of psychological autopsy is to carry out an accurate death process of the decedent, hence classifying the death mode in the death certificate. This method requires detailed information in the decedent’s life and many interviews from decedent’s social environment, friends, and families. There are two major trends that are used in psychological autopsies, which include research investigation, and legal or clinical use. Research investigation involves comparing many people who die in suicide and comparing those individuals with another group. For instance, accident victims to know if there are some factors that are important in discriminating between deaths and other suicides. On the other hand, clinical and legal use of psychology autopsies involves investigation of single deaths to get clarification of why and how that person died. In many cases, this includes gathered information from families and friends to help the investigators understand why a tragic death occurred. This may be helpful in getting to know the cause of the death as well as knowing means of preventing suicides by suggesting improvement in the hospital and suicide prevention in the jails (Malmquist, 2006). Psychological autopsies are important in helping one determine mode of the death especially in making a decision between an accident death and insurance. In most of the states, defense departments and insurance companies have used psychological autopsies to compensate the families that have lost their loved ones. To uncover environmental or genetic environment for instance, a bacterium cause disease that could affect other members of the family is also another benefit of conducting autopsies. Psychologically, the autopsy provide a closure by confirming the cause of the death .Therefore, the autopsy in this case can demonstrate to the family the care provided is very appropriate and this offers reassurance to the family members regarding the quality of medical care. This also helps the family members to participate in medical and counseling research and education. Clinics and Hospitals also benefit because the procedure is used to confirm the accuracy of the clinical diagnoses and appropriate medical care .The autopsy findings thus can be used to educate nurses, physicians, students, and residents, hence; help in contributing toward improved quality of care. The major advantage of conducting and investigation would be to know and determine the mode of the death of the victim. This is essential since it helps one determine if the death was an accident, suicide, or homicide and whether it was planned or not. The second aim would be to determine the deceased state of mind at the time the death occurred and the possible reasons that would have led to his death. This would not only help in ensuring that justice is done, but not ensuring that measures are taken to prevent future reoccurrence of the incident. In addition, the purpose of conducting psychological autopsy would be to get the information that will be very helpful on how to treat future patients, and identify behavioral patterns that would seem to accompany different degrees of suicidal intent (Malmquist, 2006). Malmquist (2006) states that, there are several steps that are taken in conducting the psychological autopsy. One of the issues that are done is conducting forensic psychology, and risk high behaviors of a person. The psychological autopsy method requires several steps to review and obtain detailed information of the decedent’s life, which include health records, professional records, interviewing people from the same environment, and any other available source or material that would identify the psychological characteristic of an individual. During the investigation on my report, I would include the victim’s personal information like age, marital status, address, occupation. The age will help me know the interests the people at that bracket have, and if it would be one cause of conflict with any other person, hence resulting to his death by being shot or not. Details of the death would also be crucial information. For instance, date and time when the death occurred, cause, place of death and witnesses if available as well as autopsy. If there is any witness then he or she would be able to give tell the reasons and how the chief met his death and this would help us find the solution so as to prevent such incidents occurring in future. Personality, the last people he was seen with before encountering his death, addictions and victims history information would be included on the report. This will help know the life style, alcohol or drug abuse implication to the victim’s life and to know his behavioral changes before his death (Malmquist, 2006). This is significant because knowing all the possible cause of his death is made possible. Gathering information from the last person he was seen with at a restaurant would make us get to know if any conflicts were encountered hence leading to his death or if the victim talked to that individual on any issue that would make him shoot himself. Victim’s history, interpersonal relationship with the family and friends, lethality, addictions, and personality are valuable information that I would also gather. The psychological issues that the family and other friends may experience include surprising emotions such as anger, guilty, shock, and sometimes one may feel like sadness feeling will forever remain in their hearts. Guilty conscious may involve one regretting on the things that one did or did not say while the deceased was alive or not doing something to prevent the death from occurring. Anger may cause one to blame others for the death of the chief even if that person was not involved in any way during the course of the death. Fear would trigger worries and one may start feeling anxious, helpless, insecure, panic attacks. It would further trigger fear about friends own mortality, and the family may experience the fear of facing the responsibilities on their own. Evidently, the death of the chief can cause physical symptoms, which may include fatigue, nausea, loss of weight, insomnia, pains and lowered immunity to the family members and the friends. In conclusion, as a counselor, I would also play a role to support the friends and the families, which would help them to cope with the situation. Further, I would advise the society on how to solve issues especially those issues that are conflicting to avoid such incident reoccurring again. I would talk to the family members and the bereaved friend to accept the loss of their loved one by talking and counseling them. This way, they will be able to separate emotions from the death of the chief and start a new relationship that would help the family make decisions independently. Others may become stressed and depressed especially the close friends and the families of the victim, but withy the guidance, everything will be back to normal. References Kocsis, R. N. (2009). Applied criminal psychology: a guide to forensic behavioral sciences. Norway: Charles C Thomas Publisher. Malmquist, P. C. (2006). Homicide: a psychiatric perspective. Washington: American Psychiatric Pub. Read More