The Study of Death during Military Services and the advanced Death Investigation System

군내 사망사고 실태분석을 통한 변사체 검시제도의 개선에 관한 연구

The necessity for the investigation of death occurred in military services has no differences to the death of civilians. But the death of military service members under the Universal Conscription System in Korea has special considerations because of hard accessibility by the bereaved family and closed environment of the army. The analysis of the death occurred during military service was carried out and the advanced death investigation system to prevent the death was proposed to prevent the declination of fighting spirit and efficiency and also to restore the solid support by the people. The deaths in the period 1995~2006 were 330 persons in 1995, 359 persons in 1996 and were decreased to 135 persons in 2006. The death caused by safety accidents including vehicle accident, drowning, fall were 56% and by military crimes including suicide, arms, homicide were 44%. The numbers of suicides were 108 persons in 1995 and were decreased to 79 persons in 2006. The numbers of suicides were decreased constantly, but the ratio of suicide to death were increased, so the suicide prevention is more important. The autopsy ratio was increased to 51.5% in 2005 and was much higher compared to the ratio for civilians. The main reasons of complaints by the bereaved family were for regaining reputation, death in harness and reinvestigation of death. The proposals for the advanced death investigation system were as follows. The unnatural deaths including the obvious accidental deaths and homicides have to be defined by the rules. The human resources to perform the autopsy can be supported by the forensic pathologists from medical school. The special training and quality assurance programs are needed for the crime scene investigator. To regain the impaired reputation from the suicide and to support the bereaved family has to be discussed by the government.