You can believe a different way, or have a differing cultural background, and still work toward the same goal.   It starts with understanding and compassion for humanity. 


This course is approved for 2 hours of continuing education credits by Missouri POST, American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI)

Who Should Take This Course

  • Law Enforcement Patrol Officers/ Supervisors
  • Detectives and Investigators
  • Medicolegal Death Investigators
  • Coroners
  • Interested Students

Culture has become a hot topic in today’s world. Everything from race to transgender has hit the news and is dividing a nation as well as a planet.  Law Enforcement and Investigators are not exempt from these issues.  More and more pressure is being put on investigators in dealing with people of ‘difference’.  Difference may not necessarily mean ‘wrong’ – but can mean tension.  The better we all work to understand ‘difference’ and work within it, the better we will be in our investigations.   You can believe a different way, or have a differing cultural background, and still work toward the same goal.   It starts with understanding compassion. Culture includes the beliefs, customs, and arts of a particular society, group, or place.

How people respond to issues of death or dying is directly related to their cultural backgrounds. Anyone who works with families should be sensitive to their culture, ethnic, religious, and language diversity. Death investigators come head-to-head with these cultural differences several times a year.

Some groups oppose autopsy, others need burial by sundown, still, others require certain rituals to be performed on the body within a certain time frame following death.  These and many other issues arise between cultural groups. It is true that your job as a death investigator is to investigate death; however, you have to do the best you can to work within cultural guidelines – or be able to properly explain to the family why you cannot meet their needs.

This is an online video training and is designed to be interactive with students by random quizzes and a final exam. Student login and time are tracked per student to verify the time spent in the course if needed.   Testing cannot be done until the videos are watched.  Many of the videos have a unique symbol or picture that will appear prominently in the video and is part of the test questions, this will ensure the video has been watched. Certificates will only be available for print after the successful completion of the course material.

Each certificate will indicate that it was an online training and will note the approval control number and the CLEE hours given.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be better equipped to:

  1. Define Culture
  2. Explain how your views can impact your job.
  3. Properly explain how best to use an interpreter
  4. Explain why fear is the hidden emotion behind anger
  5. List the 5 fast tips for quickly de-escalating conflict
  6. List the 5 primary emotional triggers