Paulozzi Leonard J, Cox Christine S, Williams Dionne D, Nolte Kurt B
Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA.
J Forensic Sci. 2008 Jul;53(4):922-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00769.x. Epub 2008 May 16.
The number of people who cannot be identified at the time of death, sometimes referred to as John or Jane Does, is unknown, and little is known about them as a group. The study's objectives were to estimate the number of annual unidentified deaths, to identify demographic characteristics associated with dying unidentified, to determine whether the rates of such deaths vary geographically or over time, and to better characterize the causes of death. This was a population-based surveillance study of data collected from death certificates from 1979 to 2004 in the U.S. Subjects were selected by the absence of name, date of birth, and Social Security Number on their certificates. Main outcome measures were distributions by age, sex, and underlying cause of death and rates by sex, race, year, and state of death. An average of 413 unidentified persons died each year. The peak year was 1987 with 691 deaths, a rate of 28.5 per 10 million people. The rate declined to 9.7 per 10 million in 2004. Most unidentified decedents were male (80.6%). Unidentified death rates were highest among black people and in the Southwest. Among deaths for which the cause was known, 82.7% were due to injuries. Among injury deaths, 31.8% were homicides. Improvement in identification technology may have reduced rates of unidentified death since the 1980s. In addition, variations in rates of unidentified decedents may reflect changes in risk factors such as homelessness and substance abuse.
在死亡时身份无法确认的人数（有时被称为无名男女）不详，而且对他们作为一个群体的了解也很少。该研究的目的是估计每年身份不明死亡的人数，确定与身份不明死亡相关的人口统计学特征，判断此类死亡发生率在地理上或随时间是否有所变化，并更好地描述死亡原因。这是一项基于人群的监测研究，数据收集自1979年至2004年美国的死亡证明。研究对象是根据其死亡证明上没有姓名、出生日期和社会安全号码来选定的。主要结局指标是按年龄、性别和潜在死因的分布情况，以及按性别、种族、年份和死亡州划分的发生率。每年平均有413名身份不明的人死亡。死亡人数最多的年份是1987年，有691人死亡，发生率为每1000万人中有28.5人。到2004年，该发生率降至每1000万人中有9.7人。大多数身份不明的死者为男性（80.6%）。身份不明死亡发生率在黑人中以及在西南部地区最高。在已知死因的死亡案例中，82.7%是由伤害所致。在因伤害导致的死亡中，31.8%是他杀。自20世纪80年代以来，身份识别技术的改进可能降低了身份不明死亡的发生率。此外，身份不明死者发生率的差异可能反映了诸如无家可归和药物滥用等风险因素的变化。
