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Essay on forensic anthropology
Essay on forensic anthropology
Essay on forensic anthropology
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William Maples is a forensic anthropologist, someone who specializes in the human skeletal system, its variations across the world, and its changes through life and across many lifetimes; not a forensic pathologist, a medical doctor with its residency training in pathology. Maples defends the use of science to understand human nature; he defends the science of forensic anthropology for its usefulness in solving gruesome crimes and historical mysteries. He says that it can pay for itself in reduced court costs and that every state in the United States should have at least one on staff. Decomposition involves two processes: autolysis and putrefaction. Autolysis occurs when digestives juices start to digest the gastrointestinal tract.
I would also use photographs to document the scene when it comes to injuries sustained by the victim and other important pieces of evidence such as things the suspect may have dropped or left behind that may contain important details of the attacker. A sketch would be used to determine where the evidence was found as well as location of suspect in relation to the break in and the assault. This would be more accurate when it comes to precise measurements. Maintaining the integrity of the evidence by having a proper chain of custody is important to a case or investigation. Every piece of evidence must be accounted for and logged, as well as who has had access to the evidence and where the evidence has been stored.
Bones are used similarly and have been compared to fingerprints. Bones have scratches or breaks that can help establish identity or determine how long one has been dead. They are also used in dismemberment cases to determine what type of saw was used. Bugs, specifically the coffin fly, can determine where a person died, and the different generations of maggots can tell how long one’s been dead. These many aspects of death and decomposition can answer many questions and almost solve the case by
Ever since Sherlock Holmes, police and prosecutors have solved cases by confessions or eyewitness accounts, but recently they started solving cases from the forensic evidence found. In the passage, “Forensic Science: Evidence, Clues, and Investigation” by Andrea Campbell, forensic evidence is explained to be the most important evidence to present at trial. Forensic evidence are things like “fingerprints, body fluids, and bullets” (paragraph one). Forensic evidence is the evidence that’s found at the scene of a crime. In paragraph two, it says, “after police have secured the site, criminal investigators collect physical evidence.
One of the central frameworks involved in dental identification is comparing post-mortem remains with antemortem dental records, by which further analysis can provide a confirmed identity (Pretty 2001, p. 360). There are a wide range of conclusions that can be reached when reporting dental identifications. The American Board of Forensic Ondontology recommends the following four guidelines for conclusions, including: positive identification, possible identification, insufficient evidence and exclusion (Pretty 2001, p. 362). Since there is no minimum number of concordant points which are required to make a positive identification, discretion of identification lies within the expertise of the ondontologists (Pretty 2001, p.
Fingerprints are a significant form of forensic evidence because they define an individual. Every time people touch something, “they leave a little bit of themselves behind” (Sohn
The police searched Robert Pickton’s farm, and found 80 DNA profiles of both men and women retrieved on pillowslips, inhalers, syringes, jackets, lipsticks, boots, bags and many more objects that were identified by forensic biologists (Palmer et al., n.d.). Additional assistance in this case was from “forensic scientists, odontologists, foot morphologists, chemical biologists, and archaeologists” (Mudede, Selcer, Berentson, & Lovejoy, 2003). However, due to the location and brutality of this investigation, forensic anthropology was the major forensic discipline in this case. Forensic anthropologists analyze human remains and apply it in a legal context. They use the study of bone and from that, they determine how a person died as well as the age, gender, height and ancestry of the deceased that leads to the identification of a human being (Forensic Anthropologist, 2015).
Where a crime is committed is referred to as a crime scene and everything is now considered evidence. Anything the police wrongfully handle, without taking something directly to an evidence compartment, or even leaving it out of sight can make the evidence invalid. This is because without the weapon or relevant surrounding object under direct supervision or properly locked up, it has the potential to be tampered with. Even the mere possibility of mishandled evidence renders it useless in any court
Doing this, helpws protect the evidence and prevent cross contamination. The crime scene is the physical area where a crime is thought to of occurred and where the evidence of the said crime is thought to reside. Vital evidence to a case, can be found at a crime scene. This includes, fingerprints, DNA, foot prints, bullets, bullet casings, fibers, etc. It is important to determine if a crime has in fact been committed, if so, the officer must initiate enforcement action, by arresting or pursuing the offender or dispatching apprehension information.
Some of the overlapping areas of the subfields of anthropology are that forensic anthropology and osteology are connected because a forensic anthropology relies on processes that osteologists use to determine how an individual died, weather it was from diseases, natural causes, or other causes. Forensic anthropologists used the same methods when human remains are found in an archeological site, forensic anthropologists determine if the remains are recent or the remains of a hominin. Another overlapping area would be primate paleontology and primatology. These two subfields are similar because on focuses on the habits, environment, and lifestyles of fossilized primates while the other subfield focuses on the behavior patterns of primates and how they differ from the behavior of humans and other non-human primates. It is important to understand humankind from a holistic perspective because it will show how humans developed and evolved and adapted to their environments
D Assessment DNA technology Forensic testing 24.11.2014 Marius Martinsen 10D Introduction: I have chosen to investigate Forensic testing, it is also known as DNA profiling or genetic fingerprinting. During this essay I will discuss what the disadvantages and what the advantages of forensic testing are. I will also talk about how forensic testing is carried out. Forensic testing is used to identify an individual by using the DNA sequences of that person.
The analysis of pattern evidence is a useful tool and has always been used in the field of forensic science. However, the objectivity of pattern evidence has always been widely contested due to the highly subjective nature of the analysis of pattern evidence. Pattern
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
INTRODUCTION One of the major challenging tasks in forensics is the identification and individualization of the living as well as the dead. The existence of uniqueness in the living species forms the basis of recognition process in forensic science. The very first thing that is observed in the overall looks of an individual is the human face. It is the major sensing organ and is a hub of expressing emotions.
Personal identification is an integral part of all the investigations carried out at the scene of crime. Personal identification refers to the establishment of individuality of a person. The need of personal identification arises in cases of mass disasters like plane crash, bomb blast, tsunami etc. It is also important to establish the identity of an individual in cases where mutilated bones are recovered or parts of burnt bones are found. Developing the identity of the dead is obvious for social and medico-legal purposes.