Profile of Forensic Autopsy Practices in Small Towns and Cities in Rural Areas

Forensic autopsy service in a metropolitan area of Korea is well established and opti- mized for high population density based on high social system and infrastructures. However, forensic autopsy in rural areas in our country might be affected due to their low population density, and inconveniences related to special and temporal limitations as well as cultural and traditional limitation. Therefore, for an advanced and optimized model of forensic autopsy service in rural areas, we performed a retrospective analy- sis on the profile of forensic autopsy based on the eastern part of our nation for 8 years between 2005 and 2013 and analyzed them by cause of death, manner of death, demographic data, toxicological results, and additional information. Through our study we presented the profile of forensic autopsy practice in rural areas and sug- gested that it can be affected by such regional characteristics.