Online Class: Death Investigations 101

This course will open up the entire world of Death Investigation for you as it will discuss the similarities and differences to forensics in the death investigators who want to know why SIDS is killing our children, whether tularemia can be a biological warfare tool, is the Bird Flu a true pandemic threat and should you be worried about it.

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  • 18
    Lessons
  • 37
    Exams &
    Assignments
  • 67
    Students
    have taken this course
  • 16
    Hours
    average time
  • 1.6
    CEUs
 
 
 

Course Description

Most of the time when the word "Death Investigation" comes up in conversation, talk immediately turns to CSI, Law and Order – Special Unit, Quincy M.E., Patricia Cornwell books, etc. All those examples deal with death investigation almost exclusively in terms of Forensics, using all manner of sciences to track down a killer.

This course will open up the entire world of Death Investigation for you as it will discuss the similarities and differences to forensics in the death investigators who want to know why SIDS is killing our children, whether tularemia can be a biological warfare tool, is the Bird Flu a true pandemic threat and should you be worried about it. 

Death Investigation experts work in all industries, from Public Health to aviation and the automotive industries. Their investigations into deaths promote better health, safer work environments, less fear of an Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever infection spreading throughout the world, and the eradication of diseases such as smallpox.

Those who work in the world of Death Investigation take lessons from those who have died and then use that information to better our world, making it safer, cleaner, and healthier. If you have ever had the desire to help people, but are not sure where you want to focus, first find your passion. Then, see if there is a way to apply your passion to bettering the world around you. The world of Death Investigation certainly encompasses the medical and law enforcement fields, but it also includes employment opportunities for geologists, artists, psychologists, toxicologists, insurance experts, accident investigators, and many, many more.
 

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Course Lessons

  • Lesson One: The Purpose of Death Investigation

    Death Investigation is the practice of investigating sudden, unexpected, or violent deaths.
  • Lesson Two: Forensics

    The word "forensics" comes from the Latin word forum, which means as it relates to the law.
  • Lesson Three: Criminal Justice

    Criminal justice is the scientific application and study of law, natural sciences, and procedures to the social phenomena of crime, negligence, and irresponsibility.
  • Lesson Four: Public Health

    Public health is the study and practice of handling and managing any threats to the health of a community, with special attention to preventive measures.
  • Lesson Five: Public Health Agencies

    Throughout the world there are organizations who work together to increase the world's awareness of disease, its causes, how it is spread, and etc.
  • Lesson Six: Prevention Programs

    One of the greatest strides made in modern history is the extension of man's life expectancy. Hundreds of methods of death have been investigated to the point that they are fully and completely understood.
  • Lesson Seven: Epidemiology

    Epidemiology studies all factors that affect health and illness in populations of people. What the studies reveal serve as the foundation of interventions that are to be made in the interest of public health and preventive measures.
  • Lesson Eight: Ground Zero Field Investigations

    The CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, has required that they combine the science of epidemiology with other public health disciplines so that assistance can be provided on a local level, a state level, and even an international level.
  • Lesson Nine: Hantavirus

    Using the previous lesson as an example, we will begin to look at various field investigations that have actually occurred where the CDC was called in to help investigate unusual deaths.
  • Lesson Ten: Tularemia; a Biological Weapon?

    Death investigation can take strange turns. In field investigations, the appropriate agencies are always concerned about the potential mortality rate of any given pathogen.
  • Lesson Eleven: Ebola - Hemorrhagic Fever

    Due in part to the 1994 best-selling book by Richard Preston, The Hot Zone and to the 1995 movie Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman, Ebola hemorrhagic fever has become a relatively well-known viral infection.
  • Lesson Twelve: HIV

    AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) was first established as a disease when public health officials in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco began to see a strange set of symptoms among young, homosexual men.
  • Lesson Thirteen: Bird Flu - Pandemic Potential

    Most epidemiologists believe that the world is long overdue for an avian influenza of epidemic, likely pandemic proportions.
  • Lesson Fourteen: Insurance Claims

    This type of investigation is undertaken either by a private investigator or by an investigator on staff at an insurance company. This type of investigation involves death claims in which murder is not part of the picture.
  • Lesson Fifteen: Workplace Environments

    In 2006, approximately 5,703 people died at their place of work. See the following link for a map showing where these occurred.
  • Lesson Sixteen: Death Must Have a Name

    All deaths have a cause, manner, and mechanism.
  • Lesson Seventeen: Death in Children

    A child's death is a social taboo, something so unthinkable that most people push it away, preferring not to talk about it.
  • Lesson Eighteen: Death Investigation Careers

    Death Investigation experts are available for when an individual needs an expert in a given area in order to bring justice to a case where a death has occurred.
 

Learning Outcomes

By successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
  • Summarize the role and purpose of death investigation.
  • Define forensics.
  • Describe the criminal justice system and procedures.
  • Define public health.
  • Define epidemiology.
  • Describe Hantavirus.
  • Describe Tularemia.
  • Describe Ebola.
  • Describe HIV.
  • Describe Bird Flu.
  • Describe insurance claims related to death investigations.
  • Summarize death investigation career options.
  • Demonstrate mastery of lesson content at levels of 70% or higher.