Forensic Anthropology Midterm 2
What are some origins of trauma?
knives, guns, automobiles, acids, fire, that damn table you keep ramming your pinky toe into....
What can affect our interpretation of sex determination?
language and our notions of what sexes should look like
What are the two types of mass graves/burials?
orderly and commingled burials
Buckshot
pellet size: anges from 4-0 and 00 (double-0); larger than birdshot; non-linear relationship from 4 to 0 and 00
Birdshot
pellet size: from #12 (smallest) to #2 (largest), linear change in size (0.05 inch to 0.15 inch)
Phenice traits are either...
present or absent
Why are there time constraints on genocide cases?
preservation of evidence (and bodies), but also the idea that "justice delayed is justice denied"
What does the traditional form of racial thinking impose?
qualitative distinctions between people where none exist in nature
Can FAs correctly identify race?
- critiques ignore thousands of positive IDs and focus on the small amount that went wrong - assortive mating and gene flow
What alters skeletal age?
- diet - disease load (and other environmental influences) - variation (genetic, hormonal) between people and groups - weaknesses in methods - biases in the reference collections
What are the things that can shape/alter body size?
- environment (ex. terrain and femur shape) - diet - activity (muscle-bone unit) - genetic/population differences
Post-cranial (femur)
Variation in the curvichure of femur and torsion in the femur neck - curved in whites; mild torsion - curved in asians; - straight in blacks; mild torsion
How can fractures be identified?
Via displacement and through fracture lines
Cause of Death
We stop breathing and our hearts stop - What we're after is why...what cause these events to happen? -- there are seemingly infinite causes of death
Displacement
continuous surfaces no longer meet or the presence of unnatural angles - complete fracture or hinge fracture
When it come to morphological assessment, what is the primary source of information?
cranial skeleton, but some aspects of the post-crania can be used
What is science a part of?
creating folk taxonomies
Dental formation
crowns form first followed by the root
Auricular surface morphology
- 8 phases - follows similar logic to pubic symphysis
Epiphyseal fusion
- By ~ 20 yrs: teeth are completely formed and erupted, epiphyses are mostly united, long bone growth complete -- exceptions: Medial clavicle, sacrum (S1/S2), sternum = 23-27 yrs and Iliac crest and sphenoccipital synchondrosis (23-25 yrs)
metric methods
- Can be applied to post-cranial and cranial regions - Uses discriminant functions to segment male and female
Estimation of direction of fire
- Circular wounds indicate perpendicular angles - Oval wounds indicate slightly "off center" angles - Key hole wounds indicate a far greater angle to the bone - Beveling and wound size is critical to understanding entry/exit locations (which implies directionality) - Probes can be used as well to refine directionality
What to report on bullets
- Description of the wound (essential always) - Estimation of caliber - Estimation of bullet construction - Estimation of velocity - Estimation of direction of fire - Estimation of wound sequence - Other important information gained from analysis
How do you establish race from crania?
- Developed using large modern collections - Find correlates between social race and morphology - Continuously developed (both non-metric and metric)
Key goals of trauma analysis?
- Did any of the observable trauma happen around the time of death? (or even well before death?) - What type of force caused the trauma? If it was a weapon, are there clues to indicate what type? - How many wounds are present? - Are the sequence of events (wounds) detectable? - Where are the wounds located on the body?
Nuclear DNA
- Difficult to use in mass disasters/genocide - Decomposition often damages nuclear DNA (especially with heat alteration) - Comparative databases are rarely available -need an antemortem sample or need to have closely related family members alive - Potential for a more specific profiling, but requires a much more specific comparison
Wound Size
- Exit normally larger than entry - Affected by bullet characteristics (caliber, construction, velocity) - the bone itself plays a role in how would size is determined
Estimation of wound sequence
- Find the entry/exit wounds (many total?) - Identify the radiating and concentric fracture lines - Follow the fracture lines from origin to terminus -- If the terminus is another fracture line, it came after, since a fracture line as already present - With many wounds, this can become very had to "decode" - If fracture lines miss each other, timing is probably not possible
What are the special types of fractures?
- Greenstick - Parry, Colle's, Boxer's - Pathological fractures -- osteoporotic "fragility" fractures, osteogenesis imperfecta, stress fractures (from overuse)
Location of wound and events surrounding death
- In the mouth (suicide?) vs. top of or behind the head (homicide?) - Front/back or side - Handedness of the assailant -correlations with wound location
Who are the four main investigator teams on genocide cases?
- Investigator (representative of the prosecution) - Chief archaeologist (excavation and analysis) - Chief anthropologist (excavation and skeletal analysis) - Chief pathologist (cause and manner of death, victim identification)
profiles of bullets
- sharp - blunt (flat or rounded) - hollow point
When it comes to firearms and ammunition, what commonalities effect bone?
- size of the projectile - construction (shape, internal composition, covering) of projectile - velocity (speed at impact) of projectile
Sex determination of subadults
- skeletal signs of sexual dimorphism begin mainly in puberty - a long-held "holy grail", but no method to date has been successful enough (70-80% accuracy) - most methods involved exploring differences in the auricular surfaces and greater sciatic notches on subadults - another approach: dental aging v. skeletal maturation-- since girls mature faster, a greater discrepancy would imply male -- problem- many causes for delayed growth, fast growth
bullet velocity
- speed of the bullet 2x weight = 2x kinetic energy 2x velocity = 4x kinetic enery
Epiphyseal closure
- starts early in life - a lot of changes in the cranium, spine, pelvis in kids - intense long bone activity at 15-25 years of age - sex differences as a source of variability
Directions of force
- tension - compression - torsion - bending - shearing
What are mass disaster general protocols when it comes to locating, mapping, and collecting?
- the scene is largely "known" - collecting takes precedence to preserve soft tissues that might be useful forensically in identification or for cause/manner of death - markers are placed at each "recovery point" - mapping is usually not grid based
Why do FAs race skeletons?
- to identify skeletons via biological profile
Metamorphosis of pubic symphysis
- using symphyseal face (joint) - not a degenerative process at first - filling in and building of face first (billowing) then secondary breakdown - different methods: todd (1920), gilbert and mckern (1957/73), suchey-brooks (1986)- most widely used
What is a key part of anthropological inquiry?
understanding variation
Compression fracture
usually defined as a vertebral bone in the spine that has decreased at least 15 to 20% in height due to fracture - occurs in the spine
Mass Disasters
usually imply accidental in nature, such as a plane crash, train derailment, flood or hurricane
Cranial vault
variation in the complexity of the cranial vault - simple in whites - complex in asians
Jaws and teeth
variation of the lingual surface of the incisors and variation in the dental arch - spatulate in whites; parabolic in whites - spatulate in blacks; hyperbolic (rectangular) in blacks - shovel shaped in asians; rounded in asians
What is the #1 determinant of wound size?
velocity
Focus of trauma
was the force applied to a small area (knife/blade wound) or a broad area (most other forms of trauma)
Concentric fracturing lines
- More common in very powerful weapons (rifles) - Caused by intracranial pressure after entry...think circular radiating waves - Can be dissipated by other fracture lines, skeletal features - Cause externalbeveling (useful in distinguish from blunt for trauma)
Estimation of caliber
- Necessary when bullet isn't present at the scene (ballistics experts will determine this) - Wound size is a primary determinant
metric methods on post-cranium
- Post-cranial: pelvis is somewhat useful (68% accuracy on Terry collection) -- Ischium-pubic index is hard to implement methodologically (landmarks are hard to find) -- Other postcranial measures were also met with low to moderate success at best --- "Better" bones to use: Scapula (height), humerus (head diameter), radius (head diameter), femur (head diameter) --- New methods (since 2003 for pelvis, humerus, femur) have shown a marked improvement
Why do different studies show divergent results about the accuracy of race assessment?
- Preservation matters (# of measures, variables) - Ability to determine sex - Statistical and reference population problems - Patterning of human variation locally vs. globally
bullet travel
- Rifling reduces drag and adds accuracy and distance - Bullets ultimately begin to wobble and spin, take a downward trajectory -we may see non-circular wounds - Wound pattern is also affect by angle of the weapon to the target
What can cause damage to bone after death?
- Taphonomic changes (animal activity, erosion/weathering, plant activity) - Excavation/collection damage - Damage during storage/analysis
Fracture lines (projectile trauma)
- The velocity of the bullet has a large impact on the amount of fracture lines present - Fracture lines propagate differently depending on the bone type (cranium, long bone, ribs, etc)
Nonconcordance of traits
- There is more variation within groups than between them (5-10%) - Difference is patterned locally, not continentally
Some issues with sex determination
- Traits based on size/robusticity rely on "maleness"; lack or presence of "male-like" features (we fall into linguistic traps) - Some aspects of sex determination subjective; a trait can be seen as possibly female and/or male -so can be quite unclear - Historically, females not always physically "weaker" (smaller); false universal assumption, requires caution -Be careful of normative notions of femaleness/maleness (cannot be applied cross-culturally; population specific) - Age has an effect on robusticity/size -- Older females appear more "male-like" due to constant bone deposition; aging processes mimicking robusticity -- Younger males appear more gracile and "female-like" because muscle forces haven't had a lot of time to alter shape of bone -- Juveniles who haven't gone through puberty cannot be assigned a sex
What does nonconcordance mean?
- Traits we use to determine race (like skin color, cranial shape, blood type) have no value for predicting other aspects of biology - most traits vary independently from each other do not pattern themselves in the same way across geographic zones - Genes are primarily inherited independently from each other (independent assortment)
Methodological accuracy
- Using the whole body ~95% -- Similar accuracy is reached using certain pelvic traits -- Yet pelvis shows only 16-18% difference in size....functional differences become key - Teeth show only approx. 4-6% difference sex dimorphism -- Important to remember in paleoanthropological scenarios - Don't rely on one trait if at all possible!
Estimation of bullet construction
- Very little forensic work on this, mainly speculative, based on other "known" patterns - Problems: -- Shattering/large wounds can be cause by hollow-point, but slow bullets and by faster, jacketed and sharp bullets - Exit wounds without shattering or much beveling are likely caused by jacketed bullets
Metric measurements for age and stature
- We can also get age estimation from lengths - We can use these for stature estimates as well - Varies with environmental influences
Age determination in juveniles vs. adults
- We can estimate age of immature skeletal remains more accurately than adults - Physiological or skeletal age (SA) VS chronological age (CA) at death - SA and CA do not always match = source of error
Radiating fracture lines
- begin at the site of the wound, radiate outward from there - follow areas of weakness in bone - when encountering another skeletal feature(foramen, suture, other fracture line) they often stop
What are the Big Three racial categories?
- black - caucasian - mongoloid -- other: often native american
What counts as a projectile?
- bullets - pellets (shotguns) - shrapnel (explosives) - spears/arrows - any other flying object
Fracture lines in long bones and ribs
- butterfly fractures - irregular fractures
Rib end morphology
- changes at the sternal end at costochondral junction - 4th right rib, both sexes, from Caucasian autopsy samples - change from v-shaped to u-shaped pit - smooth to scalloped sharp edge - no projections to many - thick walls to thin fragile walls
What is a temporary morgue and its use?
- fresh bodies are common - preservation of remains is essential (including refrigeration) - formal research labs are usually not close by, labs need to be set up on the fly
What are the 5 technical definitions of manner of death?
- homicide - suicide - accident - natural - unknown
metric assessment
- if ancestry is uncertain via anthroscopy, it will probably not be assessed via metric assessment (in the post-cranial skeleton) - many of these methods used on limited reference populations
Wound beveling types
- inward beveling - outward beveling - reverse beveling
sexing the pelvis
- key difference in pelvis related to form/function: childbirth specifically - features include: shape of pelvic brim, pre-auricular sulcus, sub-pubic angle, pubic constriction, pubic concavity, ventral arc on pubis
What can be done to more accurately assess age at death of skeletal remains?
- look at multiple areas of the skeleton (if possible) - stick to using age ranges (think of ages as distribution, not exact numbers)
Who is included on the teams of mass disaster and genocide cases?
- medical examiners and coroners (legal documenting) - pathologists (autopsies for cause/manner of death) - forensic anthropologists (identification, recovery, mapping, collecting, etc) - odontologists, radiologists, and many others
How is working mass disaster and genocide cases exceedingly difficult?
- methodologically - logistically - emotionally/psychologically
What are degenerative changes and when do they occur?
- new bone formation also with joint destruction -- starts at 50s-60s, but earlier and with greater frequency in some populations
What are the primary ossification centers?
- planum occipitale - planum nuchale - lateral part - basilar part
What are the protocols of genocide and human rights violations?
- pre-forensic investigation - forensic investigation - expert witness testimony
What are the different types of trauma?
- projectile - blunt force - sharp/shape - miscellaneous
What are the 3 phenice traits?
- pubic constriction - pubic concavity - ventral arc on pubis
What are some problems encountered during genocide investigations?
- resources -- huge financial costs -- significant commitment is required for: professional personnel, equipment and support staff - psychological toll on the investigators - having antemortem social data in order to establish an identification - without this, we can only establish the "event" but not the who the people were -- perhaps the most significant challenge to providing justice and helping families
What are the different morphological methods?
- rib end morphology - cranial suture closure - auricular surface morphology - pubic surface morphology - vertebral osteophytosis
What to observe when determining sex:
- robusticity - size - traits related to functional differences in male and female bodies (ex. childbirth)
Wound Shapes
- round - oval - keyhole - irregular
Cranial suture closer
- score sutures from 0 (open) to 3 (completely fused) - during adult life gradually disappear, old age completely obliterated - starts endocranially then proceeds out - sex and population differences
Mass graves/burials
- very complex archaeologically - no standardized definition (of what is considered a mass grave/burial (by number)) - excavation often requires heavy equipment-- backhoes, excavators - mapping can involve GIS and 'total stations' (laser based survey equipment for 3D mapping)
What are the three racial categories?
- white - black - asians
What are the 4 key features of bullet wounds in bone?
- wound beveling - wound shape - wound size - fracture lines
Characteristics of postmortem trauma
1. Little to no radiating fracture lines 2. Breaks are more like a dry twig ("clean" breaks) 3. Long bones break commonly at right angles, with flat broken surfaces 4. Pieces can fit back together easily and cleanly, unlike perimortem wounds 5. Color differences at the newly exposed bone
What are the two processes of aging?
1. age from growth and development 2. age from degeneration (the "aging" process)
What are the 4 dental eruptions?
1. first deciduous at 2 years 2. permanent incisors and 1st permanent molar at 6-8 years 3. remaining canines, premolars and 2nd molar by 10-12 years 4. 3rd molar after 18 years
What can genocidal intent mean?
1. killing 2. causing widespread bodily or mental harm through torture, rape, or mutilation 3. deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy a group (such as deprivation of resources, forced relocation) 4. prevention of births 5. forcible transfer of children
What are the 3 main groups of aging methods?
1. morphological 2. bone microstructural 3. dental
What are the different types of fractures?
1. transverse 2. oblique 3. spiral 4. comminuted 5. greenstick 6. impacted 7. traction/avulsion 8. compression 9. closed 10. open
How many dental eruptions are there?
4
Nose
5 features are useful in assessing ancestry: root, bridge, spine, nasal sill, and nasal guttering
How accurate are cranial and post-cranial assessments?
85% and over? - Ousley et al: very high (over 80% worldwide, over 90% in the US) - Smay and Armelagos: very low (<20%) - Recent review: very low (0-20% in most cases)
Impacted fracture
A bone fracture in which one of the fragments is driven into another fragment
Description of wound
Always essential to report - Very methodological and detailed - Includes: location (precise!), size, shape, number, fracture lines, beveling, etc. - Quantitative and qualitative report
What is trauma?
Any damage caused to living tissue by an outside force
the physical element of genocide
Conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to commit, attempt to commit, complicity to genocide, and successful acts of genocide
Estimation of velocity
Can only be deduced on a qualitative scale (low or high) - Low -typical handguns, exit wounds less common - High -rifles and magnum ammunition, exit wounds common - Presence of fracture lines and shattering also suggestive of high velocity
metric methods on cranium
Cranial: 11 measures at 85% (Terry and Hamann-Todd collections) - This "success" rate isn't static! It is population dependent
What is the role of DNA?
DNA is now very important for identification in these scenarios, although other supporting lines of evidence are used and needed
What are the 2 aspects that can be determined with relative certainty when it comes to shotguns/pellets?
Directionality (via location on body) and Range of fire (via spread on the body and ballistics experts)
What is DMORT?
Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team - operates under the Dept. of Homeland Security - can be called to assist with logistics, recovery, psychological support
Clines
Essentialist divisions always fail (skin, blood, genes) -at least in finding consistent ones - There are no natural divisions, races were created for specific purposes - There are correlations to geographical ancestry and kinship, but these incredibly broad and do not conform to the traditional race concept
the mental element of genocide
Genocide is a crime "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group"
What are the key tools FAs use for projectile trauma to determine cause of death?
Location (brain case vs. limb) and severity of wounds (clean entry/exit vs. shattering, extensive damage)
Humanitarian response
Needs of the living come first - recovery and identification - removal of bodies before survivors return - personal items returned - remains may be returned for personal burials
Medico-legal response
Needs of the living matter, but cannot come at the expense of the investigation - higher level of rigor and protocols - all participants need to have proper training, certification, and expertise - issuance of death certificates a primary concern (allows next-of-kin to pursue legal recourse)
What is the best part of the cranium to assess ancestry?
Nose (best) - face (second best) - vault - jaws and teeth (worst)
Sexing the skull
Notice the scale used in sex determination 1-5 or F+, F-, ?, M-, M+ - some traits are either present or absent
Fetal growth
Seems to be little inter-population variation prior to birth
What has to be considered when determining the sex continuum?
That each sex has 1 clear developmental pathway but that "deviations", or intersexed, individuals account for almost 2% of the population (overall)
What do the results of studies on ancestry assessment mean?
The American context: - White and black groups originally pulled from different continents - Little admixture has led to a persistent difference in cranial morphology The world-wide context: - Geographically pattern variation - A lot of overlap between groups - Individuals and groups can nonetheless be classified at a rate "far greater than chance" - Classification will never reach 100% due to overlap in group variability
biological essentialism
The belief that 'human nature', an individual's personality, or some specific quality is an innate and natural 'essence' -- there are "types" of people
When do osteons form?
The older you are, the more osteons you have and vice versa
Why are age estimates more difficult in older individuals?
There are so many influential factors, aside from genetics: lifestyle, diet, biomechanical effects, etc.
Sexing the post-cranial skeleton
Typically females appear less "robust" in terms of muscle marking, overall size, joint size, and cortical bone thickness
What is sex determination?
a biological system that determines the development of sexual characteristics in an organism
Spiral fracture
a bone fracture occurring when torque (a rotating force) is applied along the axis of a bone - AKA torsion fracture
Fracture
a breakage that travels completely through the bone
Folk taxonomy
a fake taxonomy - this fake taxonomy is one based on the idea that racial categories distinguish one person from the next on a taxonomic level (Linnaean taxonomy) -- Even what we think of as stable groups are actually fluid -- "Races" are exceedingly poorly defined, and vary by culture
Greenstick fracture
a fracture in a young, soft bone in which the bone bends and breaks - typical of subadults, less mineralization of bone -think young twigs in the spring
Open fracture
a fracture in which there is an open wound or break in the skin near the site of the broken bone - AKA compound fracture
facial indices
a product of morphological facial height, measured from the Nasion to Gnathion anatomical landmarks, divided by the bizygomatic width, measured from the right to the left Zygion
What are age estimates best given as?
a range (of ages, not just one specific age)
What is race in the U.S.?
a social phenomenon with biological consequences due to positive assortive mating and institutional racism...In this regard, race helps explain modern cranio-metric variation in American blacks and whites
Trephination
a surgical intervention where a hole is drilled, incised or scraped into the skull using simple surgical tools - in past societies
GIS
a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data
What is race?
a worldview and can be defined as "a culturally structured, systematic way of looking at, perceiving, and interpreting" the world
Postmortem trauma
after the time of death
What has an effect on robusticity/size?
age
Why are age estimates best given as a range?
age estimates reflect skeletal variation with a possible degree of distribution
What measures often intersect and influence each other?
age, sex, height, race, unique aspects (pathology, dental work, etc)
Infracture
an incomplete fracture
Traction/avulsion fracture
an injury to the bone in a location where a tendon or ligament attaches to the bone
Oval wound shape
angle is "off" (not perpendicular) or bullet is tumbling; common with jacketed bullets (although any can cause this)
Round wound shape
angle of trajectory is perpendicular to the contact surface; more common in entry than exit wounds (except jacketed bullets)
Perimortem trauma
around the time of death (usually the one law enforcement cares most about) - no signs of antemortem healing - the "green bone" response -- sharp edges -- hinging -- fracture lines -- shape of broken edges -- perimortem staining from hematoma -- pieces that don't "fit" back together perfectly due to elastic nature of living bone
What do investigators look at when they use the term sex determination?
assigning biological sex, not gender
Why are FAs called upon for cases of mass disasters and genocide?
because of their expertise with skeletonized remains, burns, disarticulation, and general poor condition of the remains
Why do forensic investigations of genocide cases operate differently than other forensic cases?
because the burden of proof is higher
Antemortem trauma
before the time of death (can be important- ex. child abuse) - signs of remodeling and healing - porosity near the signs (bone cell activity) - rounded edges (healing process has begun) - presence of a callus
What are the 2 pellet sizes?
buckshot and birdshot
What are the 3 ways bullet size is measured?
caliber, gauge, and number
What is essential to establish when it comes to genocide?
cause and manner of death (unnatural and intentional- murder)
What do dental methods look at?
cementum incremental layers with microscopic sections
Breakages
changes in the normal continuity of bone
What do morphological methods look at?
changes with joints in the body where movement is limited/or there is no movement at all
Genocide
deliberate killing of another group for ideological purposes
Why are age estimates more accurate for subadults?
dental and skeletal maturation may be under tighter genetic control than degeneration
Dental aging in subadults
dental development: widely used, less affected by environmental influences as compared to other skeletal indicators - dental eruption - dental formation can be delayed in poor socio-economic status conditions - sex differences are present
Caliber
diameter of a bullet (or the barrel of a handgun/rifle)
Sexual dimorphism
distinct difference in size or appearance between the sexes of an animal in addition to difference between the sexual organs themselves - (in humans) large overlap in variation, up to 95%
When is the age from degeneration process?
early adulthood through "old" age
Penetrating
entry only, no exit wounds - if intact on entry, characteristics of the projectile will be reflected in bone
What is critical at all stages of mass grave/burial investigations?
extensive documentation - video, photography, and notes
Eyes
eye orbit shape and projection of lower border distinguishes between races - angular, whites; non-projection of lower border - rectangular, blacks; non-projection of lower border - round, asians; projection of lower border
What is sex determination important for?
for understanding morphological variation (through time/space)
What are breakages called?
fractures and infractures
When do histological "profiles" vary?
from region to region in one bone
male variation in the past
generally start puberty later and grow for a longer period (in the present as well) - translates into ~5-10% bigger body size - BUT, still a large overlap with females - genetic potential shaped by many other factors
How is the expression of sex shown on the body?
genetic, and developmentally guided via diet, age, activity, environment, etc
When is the age from growth and development process?
growth and maturation from fetus through childhood, adolescence, and up to early adulthood
Perforating wounds
have entry + exit wounds - present if enough left in the bullet - particularly devastating; damaging
What do aging estimates move from? What does it result in?
higher accuracy (subadults) to settling for broad groups (adults) Results in: reduced accuracy, but more confidence and realistic assessment acknowledging limits of methodology
Why do males and females age differently?
hormones, biocultural factors (diet, activity, etc)
What are the two forms responses can take when it comes to post-conflict or post disaster regions?
humanitarian and medico-legal
What can the type of wounds help in identifying?
if the assailant was male/female, tall/short, left/right handed, etc
Why is projectile trauma common?
it is the "preferred" method for homicide and suicide because of its lethality (physical/psychological distance)
Keyhole wound shape
like an old-fashioned key-hole; common in the cranium; extreme angle of entry or grazing with shallow entry
Lines (fracture)
lines in the bone resulting from the force of the trauma- typically in radiating or concentric forms
Bullet Construction
made up of a profile, internal composition, and covering (jacketing) - typically lead, but steel or iron are used as well - jacketed or semi-jacketed (thin layer of metal to cover bullet to resist deformation)
Irregular
many forms, usually resulting from shattering (explosion-like); more common in exit wounds; more common with soft-tip bullets like hollow-point
Speed of trauma
may inferred in some cases - Sudden high velocity trauma? Slow build up of force? - Two technical terms: dynamic (baseball to the knee) and static (broken hyoid during strangulation)
Who decides cause and manner of death?
medical examiner or coroner
What do body altering traits contribute to?
morphological variation
mtDNA
mtDNAcan be extracted from decomposed remains, but is not unique to an individual - Good for family groups (matrilineal lines), but when many are dead/not present, accurate comparisons can be hard to create -Unrelated individuals may share mtDNA sequences
When it comes to age assessment at death, you should ideally use what?
multiple methods to assess age
Rigor mortis
muscle stiffening caused by the binding together of muscle fibers
Inward beveling
on entry wounds
Outward beveling
on exit wounds
What can be used to come about victim information?
questionnaires that are constructed by FAs for family members to facilitate identification -- demographics, unique features (birthmarks, tattoos, dental work, pathologies, etc)
What is the goal of mass disaster general protocol?
recovery and identification of victims
Number
refers to the pellets of lead/steel shotguns use
Gauge
refers to the size of the barrel; measured as the weight of a lead ball that would fit in the barrel - applies to shotguns
What are the other microstructural methods?
root transparency and tooth wear
What factors affect remodeling?
sex, genetics, trauma, metabolic disease, diet, other pathology
What needs to be considered when it comes to degenerative changes?
sex/anatomy, genetic predisposition, occupations, etc
What are some core methods FAs use for sex determination?
sexual dimorphism (size, robusticity), functional differences in morphology (pelvic differences)
What forms can trauma take?
sharp, blunt, chemical, burns
How can the nature of trauma be uncovered?
speed, focus, combined with direction of trauma
Traditional race concept
states that races are discrete/exclusive, permanent, and relatively homogenous
Are age estimates more accurate for adults or subadults?
subadults
What is the "race debate"?
that race has biological merit
What are prosecutors trying to prove when it comes to genocide?
that the accused is/are guilty of the death of the victims and the extra "step" of the intent to kill an entire group based on the UN criteria
Algor motis
the cooling of the body after death
What happens to bone after a fracture?
the formation of a callus 1. hematoma formation 2. fibrocatilaginous callus formation 3. bony callus formation 4. bone remodeling
biological determinism
the idea that all human behavior is innate, determined by genes, brain size, or other biological attributes
What can help investigators establish cause v. manner of death?
the key goals of trauma with other factors like height, sex, and age
Histomorphometry
the measurement of the shape or form of a tissue - developed on femur, tibia and fibula, clavicle and rib (primarily) - limited application in children
Livor mortis
the pooling of the blood in the body due to gravity and the lack of blood circulation as a result of the cessation of cardiac activity
Why is information limited on genocide cases?
the prosecution shares some information gained from witness testimony, but this is limited to preserve clear judgement (limit bias)
Manner of Death
the way a person died (the conditions around death) - accident, homicide, natural causes, suicide, unknown
Dimorphic model of sex
there are two separate sexes (male and female) with no overlap
Bimodal model of sex
there are two separte sexes (male and female) with an overlap of intersexed individuals (accounts for almost 2% of the population)
Why are indicator stages used (according to Jackes)?
they are simply stages in skeletal change that have some relationship with as that is affected by many factors
What do bone microstructural methods look at?
thin sections of cortical bone for secondary osteons
What are the key roles for FAs in the forensic investigation of genocide cases?
to discover: - the MNI: minimum number of individuals - population specific methods for group affiliation -- metric and non-metric measures - clothing as group membership (when biological profiles can't tell us much) - the role of eyewitness accounts (corroboration by FAs in the testimony phase)
What is the goal of the pre-forensic investigation in genocide cases?
to establish locations of mass burials
Why are mass graves usually hidden?
to prevent identification and to conceal the atrocity - usually found in cases of genocide
What is the goal of forensic anthropology when it come to ancestry assessment?
to translate biological criteria into social ones
When are metric methods used?
when morphological assessment is not possible
Bone Hinging
when some bone breaks off but is still being held on
Reverse beveling
when the beveling does not match the direction of travel (of bullet)
Comminuted fracture
when the bone breaks into several pieces
Oblique fracture
when the break is on an angle through the bone.
Transverse fracture
when the fracture line is perpendicular to the shaft (long part) of the bone
How can large scale commingling be resolved?
with DNA testing to match body parts to an identity
How can small scale commingling be resolved?
with pair matching, articulation, process of elimination, osteometric comparison, and taphonomy
How accurate are the phenice traits?
~ 95%