Understanding the Post-mortem Report

This study is concerned with how the post-mortem can be understood. It further outlines what the post-mortem reportis, and type of the information which can be obtained from it. These will assist the police investigators to handle murder casesin a professional way. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the existing manner in which police investigators in the SouthAfrican Police Service (SAPS) in the study area, use post-mortem reports in their investigations, with the intention of determiningits strengths and weaknesses, and considering how the usage can be improved. Secondly, the researcher wanted to explore howinvestigators use post-mortem reports as a source of information in their investigations. To accomplish this, the study focused onperusing international and national literature in an attempt to explore the field. The study wanted to reflect how the new researchknowledge applied in order to develop good practice in the field. This has been done by recommending new procedures to enhanceperformance and to improve the conviction rate in court cases.