Unsure about this: "Coroners are less likely to investigate unnatural deaths in women"

[alcibiades]

theconversation.com/coroners-are-less-likely-to-investigate-unnatural-deaths-in-women-78282

I haven't read this webpage very much, so I don't know if they have a particular slant to their articles. Also, I'm not sure about the statistics they've used.

But given a recent thread which referred to possible differences of medical diagnosis/treatment between men and women, I wonder if there really is a significant difference in how deaths are treated?

Sounds entirely plausible. I don't know this webpage either, but the tone is not sensationalist, and considering the sexism in all other parts of society, it would be more surprising if women weren't discriminated against after death.

If a doctor isn't able to tell when a woman has a heart attack because he only knows male symptoms, he'll also not be able to tell when she did NOT have a heart attack. Et cetera.

Besides, many women are murdered by their husbands, while the other way round is rare, and of course, the spouse would be the first person to want the death investigated ... IF the spouse wasn't the murderer, that is.

Thus, many men being murdered by other men: Wife stresses to doctor how healthy her husband was and how unlikely a natural death.

Woman being murdered by her husband: Husband tells sob story of illness and long suffering.

Considering just how many women are murdered by husbands (and sometimes by male relatives), it is likely this would turn up in the statistics somewhere.

Interesting, especially reading the BTL comments and responses form the author about his conclusions.

It looks like an area worthy of some more research, if only to understand whether there is an issue here or not

This is interesting and it's hard to know what to make of it without more evidence.

On the one hand we know that roughly 2/3 of murder victims are male (male on male violence being by far the most common source of these) so it stands to reason that a higher % of male deaths are likely to be suspicious enough to report to the coroner. (I know the data starts off with unnatural deaths but it still seems a reasonable assumption that deaths due to murder are disproportionally likely to require a coroners report)

On the other hand this explanation does nothing to explain why, of those deaths reported to a coroner, male cases were twice as likely to be subject to an inquest.

No real comment here other than to wonder how one would go about looking into something like this.

the conversation doesn't have a slant I don't think…it's academics writing short more accessible versions of their current research/ or referenced articles mainly. They have their funding partners listed etc…universities and various other bodies, authors have to declare interests. I'd say what they write is usually fairly reliable, but usually not very exciting.

although that article is an exception, it does seem interesting and it does seem that the next step is to find out why this is happening. I can't read his linked academic article as I'm no longer at uni.

Guess someone would have to go and do quite a lot of qualitative research with coroners.

On the one hand we know that roughly 2/3 of murder victims are male

Do we really know that, though?
It is what the statistics say, but if there's sexism even after death, then maybe we can't be so sure. With the word "roughly" added it might still fit ... or it might be more around 1/2.

Definitely something there should be more research on.

... and fast, before the victim's sex isn't recorded anymore, but instead the "gender identity".

This was in the paper yesterday:
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/20/man-accused-murder-susan-nicholson-manslaughter-caroline-devlin-court

A “possessive, controlling” man killed two of his ex-girlfriends five years apart, with their deaths recorded at the time as being caused by accidental or natural causes, a court has heard.

Both women had been in a violent relationship with this man, and he failed to call the emergency services after the deaths, yet at the time the deaths weren't seen as suspicious.

Apologies, I meant to come back to this thread earlier. Thanks for the responses. I don’t read this kind of article very often, so I hadn’t noticed the academic references, etc.

That’s an interesting point, VestalVirgin, that whatever might be going on could be further obscured if it all becomes about gender rather than sex.

That Guardian report is chilling.