Oct 22, 2026 · 29 min · 10 segments
"We know in public health that if you're not counting, there's no way to develop prevention programs or policies.” That understanding explains why forensic pathologist Dr. Roger Mitchell is working to…
Michael CarreseHost
And do you see efforts anywhere that you think are going to be effective in addressing this situation?
So while in medical school, studying violence as a public health issue, really trying to understand what were the social determinants of violence.
You know, education, economics, housing, health care, environmental justice, just like they play, as we know now, play a big part in disease violence.
They play a big part in injury and whether or not those are injuries or accidental injuries or violent injuries.
The social determinants play a role where you live, love, work, play, have your being, access to foods, access to care.
And so exposure to violent deaths in custody got me involved in doing the work surrounding death in custody.
But then as I've learned more about death in custody, I learned more about violence on the natural deaths in custody or the drug overdoses or the the suicides that occur in custody and so all of which my career is kind of looked at through a mortality surveillance lens, an epidemiology lens.
So taking these points, these epidemiological points in the form of individual deaths, understanding their similarities, understanding their differences, being able to plot them on a map in geography.
in a particular jurisdiction like a D.C., which is really where the majority of my mortality surveillance work had occurred in my career, those geographical point plots were give you an idea of the social determinants that influence the community in which that individual lived.
And so we overlay as part of the research and work, we overlay access to education.
of jobs, access to food and food swamps or deserts, what's the access points there, and made and make correlations between the incidence and prevalence of violence or the incidence and prevalence of propensity to find someone incarcerated.
And but it's also mortality review and developing structures where there's large mortality review infrastructure.
In other words, if there are certain factors and determinants in place in any community, you're going to see violence.
And do you see efforts anywhere that you think are going to be effective in addressing this situation?
So while in medical school, studying violence as a public health issue, really trying to understand what were the social determinants of violence.
You know, education, economics, housing, health care, environmental justice, just like they play, as we know now, play a big part in disease violence.
They play a big part in injury and whether or not those are injuries or accidental injuries or violent injuries.
The social determinants play a role where you live, love, work, play, have your being, access to foods, access to care.
And so exposure to violent deaths in custody got me involved in doing the work surrounding death in custody.
But then as I've learned more about death in custody, I learned more about violence on the natural deaths in custody or the drug overdoses or the the suicides that occur in custody and so all of which my career is kind of looked at through a mortality surveillance lens, an epidemiology lens.
So taking these points, these epidemiological points in the form of individual deaths, understanding their similarities, understanding their differences, being able to plot them on a map in geography.
in a particular jurisdiction like a D.C., which is really where the majority of my mortality surveillance work had occurred in my career, those geographical point plots were give you an idea of the social determinants that influence the community in which that individual lived.
And so we overlay as part of the research and work, we overlay access to education.
of jobs, access to food and food swamps or deserts, what's the access points there, and made and make correlations between the incidence and prevalence of violence or the incidence and prevalence of propensity to find someone incarcerated.
And but it's also mortality review and developing structures where there's large mortality review infrastructure.
In other words, if there are certain factors and determinants in place in any community, you're going to see violence.
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