Introduction
When a person dies, the natural forces of decomposition cause for the soft tissue to breakdown and ultimately disappear over time. If enough time has gone by, any soft tissue evidence present at the time of death will also have disappeared. Once this has occurred, it is up to forensic anthropologists to analyze the skeletal remains for evidence of trauma in order to help the forensic pathologist assign a cause and manner of death to this individual. The task is complicated by the similarities between antemortem and perimortem injuries, the presence of skeletal anomalies, as well as the postmortem changes that can occur when skeletal remains are exposed to the elements of nature.
Although procedures and protocols have been established
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This becomes a challenge for forensic anthropologists, as missing body parts means that a full skeletal analysis cannot take place. Although there are other mechanisms, besides dismemberment, by which remains from one decedent could be in different locations (such as a dog scavenging the remains), dismemberment can be identified by the visual analysis of saw, axe, or knife marks at the ends of the dismembered bones. To aid the visibility of these marks, it is recommended that a mold and cast of the incisions be made before analysis. Many studies have been conducted that allow anthropologists to determine the blade width, shape, and the direction of the cut by the visual examination of the bones (Byers, 2011). History of cases concerning dismemberment of remains has also shown that the cut marks associated with it will cluster around attachment sites for ligaments or tendons (Buikstra and Ubelaker, …show more content…
Nakhaeizadeh et al. studied the power of contextual effects in producing bias in interpretations of trauma on skeletal remains. Ninety-nine forensic anthropologists were randomly assigned to three different websites, all of which contained the very same fourteen images of bones that contained known trauma, pseudo-trauma, anomalies, and taphonomical process characteristics. However, one website included contextual information with the images, reporting that they were from a mass grave. The second website reported that the bones in the images came from an archaeological dig in an area with a known low level of trauma. Finally, the third website was a control and contained no contextual information. The participants were asked to assign levels of trauma to each picture, with varying options available. The results concluded that there were significantly higher recordings of trauma in the bones affiliated with the “mass grave” than the exact same pictures of bones from the other two websites (Nakhaeizadeh et al.,
In my paper, I will explain forensic osteology and how it helps determine child abuse. I will also explain different cultures and situations where child abuse cases take place. I will describe where child abuse has taken place even in ancient times. Lastly, I will explain the challenges of forensic osteology in determining child abuse, what could be mistaken for it, and how it’s properly analyzed.
According to anthropologist dead men do tell tales. An elderly man is walking his dog. All of a sudden, the dog began sprinting down the block. When the man finally caught up with him, he found him digging in the dirt. The dog pulled out what looked like a bone. Upon further investigation, the elderly man realized his dog had discovered a skull, and an arm bone. In “What is Forensic Anthropology” by Richard U. Steinberg and “Identifying the Victim” by David Kohn they talk about the first few steps anthropologist take to identifying a victim and who they consult during a case.
Forensic anthropologists and their team play a very important and very difficult role in investigating genocide. Standard training and protocol forensic anthropologists typically taken when excavating and analyzing murders do not provide a lot of guidance on the specific evidence needed to convict those responsible for genocide (Morgan, 2011). As there are more and more forensic anthropologists entering the field of genocide investigation and mass grave exhumations the need to develop standards and protocols specifically related to excavations, exhumations, and examinations of mass graves and genocide is growing (Stover and Shigekane, 2002). “There is no court-accepted protocol or standard for the excavation of a mass grave” (Haglund, 2001). In order to ensure the findings are admissible in the International Criminal Court, the protocol must be consistent in the
The practical aims to establish a minimum number of individuals at the crime scene, a biological profile for each victim and the possible cause of death to these victims. In order to achieve this a number of anthropometric procedures must take place. Firstly, an examination of which bones were present and their anatomical position using a Skeletal Recording Form. Following the examination, a detailed written description of each bone was produced. A broad range of
Another common method for identifying dead bodies is dental comparison. This method is especially valuable for decedents who are not visually identifiable and are not able to be identified by fingerprint comparison. Like fingerprint comparison, dental identification requires a pre-existing dental records (ante-mortem record) [44]. If these records are accessible for comparison, a positive identity can be set up, as distinctive configurations of the bony structures of the jaw, roots of the teeth and adjacent sinuses frequently exist and are unique for every individual [45].
In modern day, with all types of technology, there are numerous ways for an individual to die, whether it was a suicide, homicide, an accident or it was simply their time. One way to help recognize signs for causes of death was determined by William Bass. In 1980, Bass started the ‘Body Farm’ behind the University of Tennessee, it was where human bodies would be placed, so him and his graduate students could observe decomposition closely (Text 2017: page 180). They started off with issues such as: how long it would take for a body to become skeletonized, as well as determining if a body was moved since it died (Text 2017: page 180). To relate Bass’ work to modern day, if I were to conduct a study at the ‘Body Farm’ I would want to find out the difference between a body that was thrown off the top of a 30-storey apartment building and a body that was beaten to death.
The basis of forensic anthropology is to help solve cases using the extensive knowledge of bones that has been built up over the years and is still being shaped today. The first recorded use of skeletal information on
The field of forensic anthropology centers on the analysis of human remains; a key component of such an analysis is the knowledge of how much time has passed between the death of an individual and the discovery of the associated remains. This period is termed the postmortem interval and is useful in regards to providing an identification of remains, as awareness of the time of death can be instrumental in determining the specifics of a crime. Determination or estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI) is possible due to certain consistencies in the process of decomposition of organisms as well as both biotic and abiotic factors associated with decaying remains. Over time, new methods have been added to the repertoire of forensic anthropology,
Forensic anthropologists use the modifications made to skeletal remains to interpret events that have occurred at outdoor crime scenes. Quantifying taphonomic modifications to human bones is a challenge currently faced by forensic anthropologists. This study aims to create and test the applicability of an objective method of quantifying taphonomy on human remains using image-analysis in GIS. To do this a standard operating procedure was created based on the requirements of having the ability to compare and combine forensic cases, incorporate current documentation methodology, and be useful across the field of taphonomy and other faunal studies. To test this protocol fifty-one outdoor crime scenes from the Mercyhurst Forensic Anthropology Laboratory
Estimating the age at time of death from an unidentified individual’s remains is an important factor of forensic anthropology. There are certain standard processes and procedures that are employed in the lab to help determine the age as well as other biological profile data. In young adults, bone and tooth maturation are often used to roughly estimate the age of the body. In adults, the deterioration of bones is used to predict the age of the unknown body.
Levels of accuracy considered suitable for an archaeological context are likely to be too low for a forensic situation, since legal implications are more significant (Scheuer, 2002). Setting that aside, many chapters have been utilised by forensic anthropologists, for example Chapter 3 -Documentation of Sex Differences and Age Changes in Adults- to classify age and sex of human remains for a given forensic case. This would contribute to part of the biological profile of the human remains as previously mentioned. Here determining the age and sex of the human skeletal remains is done through a scoring system based on observations of morphological features. Many of these scoring systems, including those used for cranial suture closure (Meindl and Lovejoy, 1985; Mann, Symes and Bass, 1987; Todd and Lyon, 1924, 1925a, 1925b, 1925c), cranial morphology (Acsádi, and Nemeskeri, 1970) and others (e.g. Phenice, 1969) are founded on samples from skeletal collections and historical excavations. Komer and Grivas (2008) showed that skeletal collections do not accurately represent living or decedent populations from which they were sourced and are subject
Though antemortem fingerprints, dental, and DNA reference material are thought to be fairly easy to obtain, this is not always the case (Christensen & Hatch, 2014). Many times DNA is not available and a body may be dismembered or so badly burned or decomposed that soft tissue features such as the face and fingerprints are not available for comparison. In cases like this, forensic radiology can serve as an extremely reliable identification tool and has long been used to establish identity when more traditional methods of identification are not possible (Christensen & Hatch, 2014; Brogdon, 1998). The most common identification technique used by forensic anthropologists, radiographic comparison involves the side-by-side or superimposed comparison of skeletal traits using antemortem and postmortem radiographs (Brogdon, 1998). Forensic radiologists and investigators agree that, “many parts of the human skeleton can serve as bony prints of the identification of human remains, and in certain respects bones have a uniqueness similar to that of footprints (Atkins, 1978).”
Forensic anthropologists use a number of methods to estimate the age at death for skeletal remains. In general, the methods are based largely upon the morphology of the skeletal elements, that is, the presence of non-metric traits or specific morphological features on each of the bones of the skeleton. These characteristics for example also include the degree of fusion of the proximal and distal epiphyses, fusion of the cranial sutures, dental eruption patterns etc.
In recent years, both anthropologists and archaeologists have become much aware of the potential importance of the inner workings of human remains than just the anatomical study. Thus, the specialty of bioarcheologists is to focus on nutritional inference, enamel hypoplasia, enthuses, dietary reconstruction, paledemography, demographic analysis, but most importantly, the effects of mechanical stress and indicators on human remains. Mechanical stress is converted to a series of biochemical reactions, and finally activates osteoclasts and osteoblasts to cause bone resorption and formation.
Despite popular belief, bones can decay. Depending on numerous factors, the rate of decomposition can be somewhere between a year to fifty years for the typical human corpse. For coroners and medical examiners, information regarding bone decay is vital for identifying bones and the people they belong to. If a body is unrecognizable, features of the bone are used to calculate the age range, gender, ethnicity, and height to narrow down the possible candidates. For bone anthropologists, bone is studied to determine what conditions may have been like for specific organisms. During this process, bone is carefully studied for marks & abrasions, evidence of chemical or physical changes in the bone, and the possible pressure applied to the bone while