Chapter 12 Study Guide

1. Manner of death – is a way to categorize deaths that occur.
 Natural: due to disease or aging.

 Accident: unforeseeable acts or hostile environment
 Homicide: death at the hand of another
 Suicide: from self-destructive-need a preponderance of the evidence pending
 Pending
 Cannot be determined
2. Mechanism of death – the mechanism of death is the reason the person died.
3. Medical examiner – a person who can perform an autopsy to figure out the cause of
death.
4. Putrefaction – is the final stage of death. It is when the body decomposes.
5. Rigor mortis – the stiffening of the muscles a few hours after death.
The body is at its most rigid state after 12 hours. Stiffness disappears after 36 hours. It may
remain up to 48 hours depending on body weight and ambient temperature
6. Algor mortis – the change in the body’s temperature post mortem.

 Rate of cooling depends on size of the body – surface to volume ratio
 Location – open or closed environment
 Clothing – naked or heavily clothed
 Weather – cold or hot
7. Autolysis – the destruction of cells or tissues by their own enzymes.
8. Autopsy – a surgical procedure of a person examining a corpse to determine the cause,

mode, and manner of death.
9. Cause of death – a specific injury or disease that lead to death.
The etiologically specific disease or injury which starts the lethal sequence of events without
sufficient intervening causes. (Etiology – cause or set of causes)
10. Coroner – a public officer who is typically not required to have specific qualifications to
look into the cause of any death which was not due to natural causes.
11. Decomposition – rotting or decay of an animal or human.

12. Livor mortis – the discoloration of the skin due to the pooling of blood to one part of the
body.
Chapter 12 standards
12.1 cellular death is the event of a biological cell ceasing to carry out its functions. The
death of an organism is when enough cells die to the point of the organism will start to
die
12.2 Natural death is when you die from natural causes such as dying from old age, Disease.
An accidental death is caused from an unnatural death that is caused by an accident.
Suicidal death is the type of death that involves the person killing him/herself.
Homicidal death is a death where someone murders a person. Undetermined death is
when the medical examiners can’t find what caused the death after an autopsy has
been done.
12.3 The cause of death is what exactly caused the person to die. The manner of death is
the type of death that has occurred. The mechanism of death is the specific change in
the body that caused the body to die.
12.4 The first thing that happens after someone dies is that they will go limp. Biochemical
machinery then stops. After that your body will start to cool.
12.5 Algor mortis will develop because the body is now trying to match the outside
temperature depending on where the body is. The skin will cool after 8 – 12 hours.
Different parts of the skin will cool at different rates. The brain cools faster than the
liver. The general rate at which a body cools down at is 1 – 1.5° per hour. The body
may warm back up after 2 days. Rigor mortis occurs because lactic acid builds up in
your muscles. That ends up creating tension in your body. It can happen up to 36 hours
after death. It starts in the jaw after 2 hours. Then it occurs in the arms after 4-6 hours
after death. The it will go to the legs after 8 – 10 hours. Rigor mortis will reach the
whole body in 10 – 12 hours. livor mortis also known as Post mortem lividity or
hypostasis, develops when the hearts stops beating. At that point the blood is in
gravity’s hands. It happens in 0 – 12 hours. If the body lies on the ground, the red
blood cells will settle towards the ground
Post mortem interval = temperature – rectal temperature
1.5
12.6 There are chemical and physical changes during decomposition. One of the things that
happens during decomposition is autolysis. Autolysis is the destruction of cells and
tissues by their own enzymes. Putrefaction is when your body decays or rots away.
Marbling is the growth and discoloration in a mosaic pattern due to prominent
subdermal vessels on the skin in 3 – 5 days of decomposition. Adipocere is the grayish
waxy substance formed by the decomposition of soft tissue in dead bodies that are
subjected to soft tissues.
12.7 This one uses a graph
12.8 Both the medical examiner and the coroner can perform an autopsy. The medical
examiner has a lot of background in forensics. A medical examiner is a medically
qualified public officer. A coroner just has a bachelor’s in criminology, anatomy,
medicine, forensic science, experimental pathology, pathology , physiology, or pre-
medicine.
Coroner Medical examiner
Citizen physician
No specific training Usually forensic board certified
Elected or appointed Public health
Usually appointed
12.9 The steps for an autopsy are
 Y-incision
 Removal of organs
 Stomach contents
 Sample collection
 Head and brain examination
 Conclusion
this helps establish the cause of death because it will show what specific thing caused the
person to die. The autopsy will show how the person died. An autopsy will also give a good
estimate of the time that passed since the person died.
12.10 it is often difficult to pinpoint the postmortem interval because the weather could
have been either very hot or very cold. That would make determining the time of death harder.

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1. Manner of death – is a way to categorize deaths that occur.

 Natural: due to disease or aging.

4. Putrefaction – is the final stage of death. It is when the body decomposes.

6. Algor mortis – the change in the body’s temperature post mortem.

7. Autolysis – the destruction of cells or tissues by their own enzymes.

8. Autopsy – a surgical procedure of a person examining a corpse to determine the cause,

11. Decomposition – rotting or decay of an animal or human.

12.7 This one uses a graph

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