FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY Chapter 1 Introduction 5 main objectives for Anthropologists Ancestry race ethnic group Sex Age Living height from the skeleton Evidence of traumatic injury o o o First Second Third o Fourth o Finally If there is evidence of traumatic injury FA attempt to identify nature of traumas and their causative agents Gather information pertaining to the manner of death Deterioration render a determination of the postmortem interval Amount of time since the individual died Because they are acquainted with the methods of archaeology Specialists can assist in locating and recovering buried or surface remains Understand structure of skeletons Can provide information useful in obtaining positive identifications of deceased people Forensic Anthropology o Deals with both criminal and civil issues law o Traditional Role work cases of human deaths when soft tissue has degenerated To the point where no medical examiner can determine demographics Usually only deal with skeletal remains However are increasingly become more knowledgeable in tissues before decomposition to see skeletal fractures Estimate the age of life through bone and teeth structure Harvest bones Work with atrocities committed during warfare investigate deaths Become involved in the study of persons of historical interest but of no mediolegal significance Mediolegal Community o Medical investigators coroners Historical Background Thomas Dwight 1843 1911 o o o Father of Forensic Anthropology of the United States Pioneering work concerning the medicolegal aspects of the human skeleton First to write articles and essays on human skeletal identification Originally designated to forensic anthropology o Researched methods for determining age height and sex from the sternum breastbone o Determining age from closure in joints o Height from bones in arms and legs Formative Period Early 1800s to 1938 Parker Murder of 1849 o Origin of science can be traced through this murder o 2 anatomists first demonstrated the effectiveness of methods regularly used in forensic anthropology today Oliver Wendell Holmes I and Jefferies Wyman Professors of anatomy Harvard Asked to investigate Parkman murder Helped to convict the murder after dismembered body was discovered Harris H Wilder Published a book on dermatoglyphics configuration of fingerprints o o Reproduction of face from the skull Still a method used today Paul Stevenson o Wrote two articles One determining age from the epiphyseal union of long bones Two stature of Chinese from long bone measurement Both are heavily used today T Wingate Todd Physician from Cleveland o o Hamann Todd collection of human skeletal remains Aldo contains a large number of nonhuman primate skeletons o His collection of bones was heavily used for developing standards for determining ancestry sex age and stature Formative Period o Ended with the publication of Guide to the Identification of Human Skeletal Material by Wilton Marion Krogman Summarized what was known about the human skeleton at the time Krogman later expanded this work Wrote an FBI manual ushering the consolidation period of forensic Consolidation Period 1939 1971 o Several things took place anthropology First Due to WWII the bodies of fallen soldiers could not be collected to beat decomposition and the bones and their fragments were used to see the height of certain individuals for identification Second Korean War Thomas McKern o Established an identification laboratory and studied ways to determine age from deceased soldiers and their skeletal remains Last T Dale Stewart o Wrote several influential pieces of work Essentials of Forensic Anthropology o Responsible for persuading the U S Army to allow research on the human remains from WWII and the Korean War With the help of Mildred Trotter Modern Period 1972 to the Present 1972 o Physical Anthropology Section in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences AAFS met for the first time 300 members o o Result of work from Ellis R Kerley and Clyde Collins Snow 1977 5 years later o American Board of Forensic Anthropology ABFA created Purpose of ensuring the competence of persons who practice FA in the U S and Canada and their territories Composed of 62 diplomats Founding of the Forensic Anthropology Data Band o University of Tennessee Knoxville o Started in 1986 continues today Forensic Anthropologists and the Medicolegal Community Medical examiners coroners and forensic pathologists Medical Examiners Coroners o Have legal responsibility to certify the deaths of people dying within their jurisdiction Coroners Elected officials o o May or may not have medical training Medical Examiners Forensic Pathologists o Licensed physicians who have specialized forensic work o Medical doctors that perform autopsies o Purpose of discovering any information s that can help in discovering cause and manner of death All of these individuals work on fleshed bodies FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY ARCHAEOLOGY AND ODONTOLOGISTS Forensic Anthropology o Deals w the identification of person from their skeletons o o Provide law enforcement officials with a demographic profile of decedents Sometimes help supply data for positive identification o Dentists who specialize in identifying individuals through dental records Forensic Archaeology o Retrieve human skeletal material o Using archaeological methods Forensic Odontologists Additional Vocabulary o Ballistics o o Study of firearms Forensic Entomology Study of insects on human remains Forensic Botany Study of plants in relation to crime scene The Forensic Anthropology Protocol and the Layout of this Book Snow s Protocol o Human o o When did the death occur o Age Single or Multiple Individuals Stature Body Weight Physique o Sex o Race o o Any anatomical anomalies signs of injury or unique characteristics o o Manner of Death Cause of death Natural accident suicide homicide unknown Methods of Forensic Anthropology Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals case established guidelines o o o Content of the testimony can be and has been tested using the scientific method The technique has been subject to peer review referable in the form of publication in peer reviewed literature There are consistently and reliably applied professional standards and known or potential error rates for the technique Consider general acceptance within the relevant scientific community o o These all underlie all methods used in forensic anthropology Methods used can be divided into two groups o Those used to