Journal of Forensic Sciences 62(5), pp. 1326-1331.
ISSN/ISBN: Not available at this time. DOI: 10.1111/1556-4029.13437
Abstract: To assess if Benford's law, a mathematical law used for quality assurance in accounting, can be applied as a quality assurance measure for the manner of death determination. We examined a regional forensic pathology service's monthly manner of death counts (N = 2352) from 2011 to 2013, and provincial monthly and weekly death counts from 2009 to 2013 (N = 81,831). We tested whether each dataset's leading digit followed Benford's law via the chi‐square test. For each database, we assessed whether number 1 was the most common leading digit. The manner of death counts first digit followed Benford's law in all the three datasets. Two of the three datasets had 1 as the most frequent leading digit. The manner of death data in this study showed qualities consistent with Benford's law. The law has potential as a quality assurance metric in the manner of death determination for both small and large databases.
Bibtex:
@article{,
author = {Daniels, Jeremy and Caetano, Samantha-Jo and Huyer, Dirk and Stephen, Andrew and Fernandes, John and Lytwyn, Alice and Hoppe, Fred M.},
title = {Benford's Law for Quality Assurance of Manner of Death Counts in Small and Large Databases},
journal = {Journal of Forensic Sciences},
volume = {62},
number = {5},
pages = {1326--1331},
doi = {10.1111/1556-4029.13437},
url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1556-4029.13437},
year = {2017}
}
Reference Type: Journal Article
Subject Area(s): General Interest, Medical Sciences