Press releases in detail

In Germany, about 34,000 deaths per year can be attributed to unnatural causes such as accidents, violent crimes or suicides. Usually, victims leave behind relatives and friends who must be informed of their loved one’s death. In death investigations, this task falls to the police. In many cases, the officers responsible are ill prepared for this duty. The literary scholar Dr Kirsten Mahlke, professor of cultural theory and methods in cultural studies at the University of Konstanz, is developing a teaching module designed to educate police cadets to act appropriately in these highly sensitive situations. Her project “Death Notification with Responsibility” (DNR) is being funded by the “Proof of Concept” scheme of the European Research Council (ERC). Since 2011, this funding programme has promoted the societal and economic application of research findings that originated in ERC-funded research projects. During the twelve-month funding period, Kirsten Mahlke’s DNR project will receive financial support in the amount of 147,000 euros.

The idea for the project was born when Kirsten Mahlke read a newspaper article in the German news magazine “Der Spiegel” about Johannes Meurs, a police officer from Kleve, who had made an alarming discovery about the families of victims: about 90 percent of those who had lost a loved one to an unnatural death were still displaying symptoms of trauma a year afterwards. His study identifies a connection between inadequate death notification delivery processes and long-term negative effects for the bereaved. Broken families and the inability to work were among the consequences. Kirsten Mahlke contacted the police officer, who, in turn, contacted the Fachhochschule für öffentliche Verwaltung und Polizei (police academy, FHöV) in Duisburg. The project proposition attracted immediate attention both there and in the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior.

Prior to this, Kirsten Mahlke had examined the socio-cultural consequences of inadequate information and the denial of the materiality of death in her ERC Starting Grant project “Narratives of Terror and Disappearance”. Exploring an extreme example, her interdisciplinary team studied how, both during and after the military dictatorship in Argentina, people dealt with the forced disappearance of relatives and friends. Between 1976 and 1983, the regime initiated the disappearance of about 30,000 people. What happens to individuals and society when the material experience of death remains intangible, when there is no body, no place for grieving, when there is no burial ritual that allows for the cultural integration of the dead? And: What happens when there is no information about what has happened, about the crime itself , about the time of death, the burial site or the perpetrators?

As the “Ein Jahr danach” (one year afterwards) study of the Kleve initiative suggests: Death notifications are often delivered in an inadequate manner, which might include misinformation. In other cases, relatives are denied access to the victim or do not receive their personal belongings in inappropriate ways. “It is a neglected issue because it does not fit the usual job description of a police officer. The police are responsible for determining the circumstances of a crime and for securing the crime scene - sometimes at the expense of protecting the victim’s family. So-called soft skills such as communication, empathy or providing support at the crime scene are considered to belong to the domain of the clergy or therapists”, explains Kirsten Mahlke. “It is crucial for police officers who are delivering a death notification to provide some kind of certainty, however tenuous, by conveying information about and liaising with first responders, hospitals and prosecutors”, she elaborates.

This is important for the officers themselves as well. Most police officers are emotionally ill-prepared for the challenging task of death notification delivery. Therefore, it is the objective of the DNR training module to train police cadets ways of responsible communication with bereaved relatives as well as with involved institutions. To that end, Kirsten Mahlke collaborates with Tobias Trappe, professor of philosophy at the police academy in Duisburg. “We are taking into account all measures necessary to ensure that the relatives are not forgotten and are able to come to terms with the concrete fact of death”, the cultural scientist adds.

Kirsten Mahlke’s concept also includes a historical and literary perspective - for example the fact that, today, our historically very young way of dealing with death is considered a private matter. Often, this means that grieving relatives are being left alone for fear of invading their privacy. In order to fully grasp the meaning of the death notification in all its dimensions, Professor Mahlke includes the literary figure of ‘the messenger’ or ‘angel of death’ as well as the rich narrative tradition of death scenes and death messages in the literature. Beyond that, she further aims to include intercultural expertise in her study. It is especially in this regard that she has noticed the greatest insecurities in police officers.

The ERC “Proof of Concept” funding tool finances measures for the further development of research results garnered in previous ERC-funded projects in regard to their applicability, potential for commercial exploitation or marketability. In addition to an economic application, it also envisions a prospective “societal benefit” in the form of added social value. Practice-oriented seminars are offered both at the University of Konstanz and at the police academy in Duisburg. Starting in the next summer semester, students in Konstanz will be able to collect data on current practice using conversations with the police, hospital staff and the local Hospizverein (hospice association). They will learn how to conduct interviews and how an e-learning module is designed.

Ultimately, the project will serve to strengthen trust in democracy: “It is the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens from being traumatised through inadequate death notifications”, says Kirsten Mahlke.

Facts:

• Funding in the amount of 147,000 euros has been granted from 1 June 2017 to 30 May 2018 through the ERC “Proof of Concept” funding programme.
• The research team consists of social anthropologists and literary scholars.
• Collaboration with the police unit for victim protection in Kleve, the FHöV in Duisburg and the Präsidium Technik, Logistik (Informationstechnik Referat 26), Polizei-Online (technology and logistics headquarters, information technology unit 26, police online).
• The teaching module is scheduled for launch in June 2018.
• From 2010 to 2015, the project “Narratives of Terror and Disappearance” was funded through an ERC Starting Independent Research Grant in the amount of 1,200,000 euros.
• Kirsten Mahlke's professorship was established by the University of Konstanz's Cluster of Excellence “Cultural Foundations of Social Integration”.