Facial Reconstruction Essay

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Identification is one of the main goals of forensic science. In this crucial legal and scientific process many different methods may be used, such as: bone and dental analysis, DNA analysis and, in some cases, facial reconstruction. Facial reconstruction is a forensic method that tries to recreate and impose unknown facial features on to the skull of the subject at hand (hwang). Facial reconstruction utilizes a plethora of approaches including photography, math, computer science and anatomy in an effort to create more reliable methods of identification and approximation (). As such, facial reconstruction is probably the most eclectic and modern method available to forensic scientists, and it should not be ignored just because methods like DNA …show more content…

Like two-dimensional reconstruction, it can be further divided into two sub-branches: computer generated 3-D reconstructions and sculptural 3-D reconstructions. Firstly, in the sculptural facial reconstruction method, facial muscle tissue is applied onto a plaster model of the human skull. Pegs are used as guides for the hypothesized location and depth of muscles, and ultimately a skin-like layer of clay is applied to the model. Later, the 3-D sculpture can be further modified to show other relevant phenotypic aspects of the person/skull being modeled. These adaptations include, but are not limited to, eye color, skin color and hair color. The thickness of soft tissue is generally established by the information that the skull provides and the information an anthropologists might provide to the sculptor. While this approach can yield realistic 3-D representations of humans, it also suffers from several flaws. As musculature drastically changes with age (i.e. becoming more or less pronounced), the soft tissue aspects of the model are usually an approximation so issue of soft tissue robustness remains a problematic despite the anatomical origins of this methodology (). Limited information can be extracted from the skull itself so the artist relies on experience when recreating faces and this may increase the likelihood of: someone else’s features being included or features that increase the likelihood of detection and recognition being included in the model. Both are legitimate concerns for the validity and reliability of 3-D