Activities	Investigate sudden or violent deaths and provide accurate, legally defensible determinations of the causes of these deaths.
Outlook	Average job growth
Median Income	$48,500 per year in 2004
Work Context & Conditions	Requires using your hands to handle, control, or feel objects, tools, or controls. Coroners are often required to wear common protective or safety equipment. They must be very exact and highly accurate in performing their jobs.
Minimum Education Requirements
Skills	Critical Thinking, Active Listening, Writing, Coordination, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, Science
Abilities	Oral Expression, Deductive Reasoning, Problem Sensitivity, Written Comprehension, Near Vision, Inductive Reasoning, Written Expression, Oral Comprehension

Job Category		Business & Financial Operations
Job Description		Medical examiners and coroners (ME/Cs) are responsible for investigating sudden or violent deaths and for providing accurate, legally defensible determinations of the causes of these deaths. The information provided by ME/Cs plays a critical role in the judicial system and in decisions made by public safety and public health agencies. The records of ME/Cs, which provide vital information about patterns and trends of mortality in the United States, are also an excellent source of data for public health studies and surveillance. Some of the more specific tasks you'd do are direct activities of physicians and technologists and investigations into circumstances of deaths to fix responsibility for accidental, violent, or unexplained death. They may confer with officials of public health and law enforcement agencies to coordinate interdepartmental activities and testify at inquests, hearings, and court trials. Death investigation practices often vary considerably between jurisdictions (whether state, county, district, or city). Perhaps the most noticeable difference is that some jurisdictions use the medical examiner system and others use the coroner system. The type of system used may be uniform throughout a state or may vary from county to county within a state. The following are some basic differences between medical examiners and coroners: Medical examiners -- May have state, district, or county jurisdiction; usually are appointed; usually must be licensed physicians. Coroners -- May have district or county jurisdiction, usually are elected, need not be physicians. Usually the only prerequisites for serving as a coroner are that a person be of a minimum age (often 18) and a resident of the county or district .
Working Conditions		Requires using your hands to handle, control, or feel objects, tools, or controls. Coroners are often required to wear common protective or safety equipment. They must be very exact and highly accurate in performing their jobs.
Salary Range		Information not yet available

Education Required		Information not yet available
Recommended High School Courses		Biology, English, Chemistry
Postsecondary Instructional Programs		Law, Government and Jurisprudence, Administration and Management, Education and Training, Chemistry, Biology, Medicine and Dentistry
Certification and Licensing

Interest Area		Investigative Involves working with ideas and requires an extensive amount of thinking.
Work Values		Security Have steady employment. Ability Utilization Make use of individual abilities. Autonomy Plan work with little supervision. Responsibility Make decisions on your own.
Skills		Critical Thinking Use logic and analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. Active Listening Listen to what other people are saying and ask questions as appropriate. Writing Communicate effectively with others in writing as indicated by the needs of the audience. Coordination Adjust actions in relation to others' actions. Reading Comprehension Understand written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents. Speaking Talk to others to effectively convey information. Science Use scientific methods to solve problems.
Abilities		Oral Expression Able to convey information and ideas through speech in ways that others will understand. Deductive Reasoning Able to apply general rules to specific problems to come up with logical answers, including deciding whether an answer makes sense. Problem Sensitivity Able to tell when something is wrong or likely to go wrong. This doesn't involve solving the problem, just recognizing that there is a problem. Written Comprehension Able to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing. Near Vision Able to see details of objects at a close range (within a few feet of the observer). Inductive Reasoning Able to combine separate pieces of information, or specific answers to problems, to form general rules or conclusions. This includes coming up with a logical explanation for why seemingly unrelated events occur together. Written Expression Able to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand. Oral Comprehension Able to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

Related Jobs		Physician, Family and General, Technologist, Medical and Clinical Laboratory
Job Outlook		Information not yet available
More Information
References		O*NET OnLine, on the Internet at http://online.onetcenter.org/report?r=1&id=299 Medical Examiner and Coroner Information Sharing Program, Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on the Internet at http://www.cdc.gov/epo/dphsi/mecisp/about.htm