ABSTRACT
This chapter elucidates the human rights facets of coronial death investigations in the UK and Australia and possible futures of criminologically inclined death studies. It focuses on inquests, which are inquisitorial, public, fact-finding hearings directed towards ascertaining the identity of the deceased, the place, and the cause and circumstances of death; often referred to as the ‘who, where, what and how’. The chapter considers the hitherto contribution of criminology to death investigation study, before addressing those key jurisdictional differences. As a research focus, death investigations are typically brought into the field of criminology by virtue of methodological questions or where coronial processes and documents form the basis for case study research. Given the recent surge in international coronial law reform and its tenor of human rights, criminologists may exact much more from this jurisdiction than hitherto they have. Deaths that are subject to this type of investigation surely demand it.
