New Temple university study reveals that elected coroners are more susceptible to political pressure regarding their findings.

The political element of those jobs might be reducing the number of reported suicides, according to a new study by researchers at Temple University. The sociologists found that jurisdictions where elected officials run death investigations have “slightly lower official suicide rates” than areas served by appointed medical examiners and coroners.

“The significant, albeit small, effects of office type on official suicide rates in our results support the notion that elected coroners are more susceptible to pressure from family or friends to report the death as something other than suicide and that medical examiners’ greater professionalism shields them from such influences," the report states.

The Temple University research, presented last week at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting, examined mortality data nationwide from 1999 to 2002. It found statistically significant shifts in manner-of-death rulings that suggest elected officials chose natural or accidental when it could have been suicide.

“If office type is affecting misreporting, our results suggest that female suicides are being misclassified most often as deaths from illness, and, to a lesser extent, car accidents and possibly (although not plausibly) non-firearm homicides, while male true suicides are being misclassified most frequently as car accidents,” the report said.

Report:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/238975-role-of-medico-legal-systems-in-suicide-rates.html

Link:
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/elected-coroners-less-likely-call-deaths-suicide-study-finds-12319