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Application of forensic anthropology
The importance of forensic anthropology
Application of forensic anthropology
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Bones, bones, bones!
It’s not everyday that you find some bones in the ground while walking your dog! As a forensic anthropologist who has just found some human remains lying around I would definitely decipher the biological profile, reconstruct the face, and testify in court to identify the unknown person. The job of a forensic anthropologist isn’t always easy, but by using these three steps, it shouldn’t be that tedious and hard. Determining the Biological Profile : Step 1 Initially, I would determine the biological profile. By figuring out the victim’s biological profile I would find out the sex, age, height, and race. According to Jerry Melbye in the article,“What is Forensic Anthropology?” by R.U. Steinberg forensic anthropologists
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The first topic I would talk about in court would be who the person was. When identifying who the person was I would include basically everything in their biological profile, ranging from their name to their race and height. According to the article, “When Forensic Anthropology Meets DNA” by Charmaine Lewis CODIS the national DNA library is a way to determine who an unknown victim is if they’ve entered their DNA into the system. (Lewis, Pg.2) There’s a slim to none chance that they have, but if they have it can be very accurate. Another topic I would bring up is if any injures or marks that were evident when the bones were discovered. I would go over anything I found while establishing Perimortem pathology. Something that’s important to mention is if any knife cuts or nicks from bullets were present. Referring back to the, “What is Forensic Anthropology?” article by R.U. Steinberg Perimortem pathology is dealing with blunt-force trauma, sharp-force trauma -- saw, axe, knife -- and ballistics. (Steinberg, Pg. 2) This would bring me to discussing if a murder occurred or if they died from a natural cause. Last but not least, I would finish off by telling the judge about any other necessary information such as the time of death. To interpret the time of death a method that forensic anthropologist Bill Bass uses is to study the life cycle of maggots, if there is a body of course. The article, ”Dead man Talking: Solving Crime Through Science,” by David Kohn stated that photographs showed Bass that the maggots were further along in their life cycle and had been in the body for at least 14 days. (Kohn, Pg.
Although both fiction and reality match in terms of the forensics using the kits determining the gender, age, and ethnicity of the victim is not as simple as the fictional show makes it seem. In reality, determining the gender, age, and ethnicity can take from weeks to months to gather all the information regarding the victim versus how on the show they are provided instantly. In the series, Dr. Brennan can be seen examining the remains by simply glancing at the remains and informing the agents of sex and gender occasionally in the series she will get somewhat closer to the remains to examine the teeth in order to obtain an age range while an intern documenting the remains by the means of photography. When compared to reality, photographic documentation is the only documentation presented to the public. When documenting the scene of the crime the forensic investigator assigned to the scene must not only photograph the scene but must also include a number of
Forensic Science Introduction: Someone in a restaurant has suddenly fallen ill and a mystery powder has been discovered with the victim. As the chief investigator, your duty is to identify the mystery substance through a lab. In this lab, it will consist of five known compounds and one unknown compound. Your job is to distinguish which one out of the five substances is the mystery powder. To figure out the mystery matter you will have to compare their physical and chemical properties and match them with the appropriate compound.
“This is my lab and what we do is study bones,” states Kari Bruwelheide in her video entitled “30,000 Skeletons”. Of the three resources that we were provided, “Puzzles of the Chesapeake” by Sally Walker, “Forensic Anthropology” by an unknown author, and “30,000 Skeletons” by Smithsonian Education presented by Kari Bruwelheide, the resource “30,000 Skeletons” is by far the best at explaining the role of an anthropologist. It is unbeatable because it is a video rather than just written words, and Kari Bruwelheide has personal experience in being a forensic anthropologist. A forensic anthropologist is a scientist that studies human remains, or in another word, skeletons, to try to find out information about the past.
In the book “Death's Acre”, By Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson they tell readers how they got to where they are today in their careers and how Dr. Bill Bass became famous for the well known “Body Farm” at the University of Tennessee. In “Deaths Acre” Bass invites people across the world who are reading to go behind the gates of the body farm where he revolutionized forensic anthropology. Bass takes us on a journey on how he went from not knowing if this is what he wanted to do for a living to being in a career that he would never trade. He tells us about the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, explored the headless corpse of a person whose identity shocked many people included the police, divulges how the telltale traces and case
One of the major task that needs to be taken care of before anything could proceed was to get a consent from the family of the individuals that were missing or had been considered dead. Since in some of the cultures it is considered very disrespectful to dig up the burial ground even if it is to find out the truth about what had happened. When and if the bodies are found the anthropologists try to the best of their ability to be careful and respectful of the remains that they found.
The portrayal of forensic anthropology in ‘The feet on the beach’ is inaccurate because forensic anthropologists are depicted to be involved in other aspects of the crime scene investigation aside from aspects that require anthropological expertise (Wood, 2017a). Similar to Dr. Brennan who is a forensic anthropologist in the show, forensic anthropologists in real life works closely with the police and the coroner when the remains being dealt with are unrecognizable (Wood,
Crime is a common public issue for people living in the inner city, but is not limited to only urban or highly populated cities as it can undoubtedly happen in small community and rural areas as well. In The Real CSI, the documentary exemplified many way in which experts used forensic science as evidence in trial cases to argue and to prove whether a person is innocent or guilty. In this paper, I explained the difference in fingerprinting technology depicted between television shows and in reality, how DNA technology change the way forensics evidence is used in the court proceedings, and how forensic evidence can be misused in the United States adversarial legal system.
In conclusion, a trained forensic anthropologist is an important factor to consider when the trauma on the bone occurred, how it occurred and what type it is. With no longer having the flesh on the body, it can make finding cause of death difficult, which is why the forensic anthropologist is
results of the forensic anthropology. For instance, if a crime is committed at a certain scene,
The next step that police do once viewing the crime scene is to look at the evidence recovered from the scene and use victimology to try to decrease the number of suspects. They look for evidence that shows what weapon was used, how the crime was committed, DNA, or anything specific about the victim that could help in the
There are quite a few steps for an investigator when determining a profile for an offender. The first step is for the investigator to gather all the current information related to the crime. This includes all of the evidence, facts about the actual crime, and even statements from witnesses. The analysis of this information should be very thorough, because the more information the investigator has, the better the chances for the profile being correct. Once all of the information is obtained and analyzed, the investigator should start to answer questions which could be related to the case.
Forensics Anthropology is the study that goes beyond the human skeleton. A forensics anthropologist can find out. How a person lived, the food that person ate, and the overall make-up of a human. The use of forensics has grown in recent years, it is used to solve crimes and locate missing persons. Snow, (1982) Forensics anthropology is not a new science. The first case forensics anthropology was used on was the Jezebel case, dating back to the nineteenth century. This case involved a person, who was thrown from a window. Snow, (1982) The remains found in this case were the skull, feet, and the palm of the victim’s hands.
Forensic scientists work in labs where they examine, identify, and interpret evidence collected in crime scenes. Crime scene investigators collect evidence and pass it to a forensic scientist who uses the items in numerous ways to help catch criminals. Forensic scientists must also record the evidence and any tests ran on it in detail to prove the truth in court. A forensic scientist also has to be able to present his or her physical evidence verbally in court, so a strong communication background is important.
This is where the crime scene unit (CSU) comes in to play as well as the detectives. Once the detectives arrive on the scene they will be looking for a suspicious individual or individuals and speak to witnesses and take their testimonials or story, they basically tell the investigator what they observed. On a crime scene investigation packet it states "when seeking for witnesses and taking their testimonials it is best to separate them so no individuals have identical stories." Once this has been done and the investigator takes the testimonials they must determine if a crime took place. For example if a person was stabbed in the abdomen and first responders arrived and trying to help the victim and he dies then the crime that took place was a aggravated battery but turned into a homicide. If a person was sexually molested and beaten while being molested then the crime that occurred is a sexual battery and rape. Once this is completed then the investigator will determine the nature of the crime. What this means is that if it is a violent crime, a website
Forensic Science, recognized as Forensics, is the solicitation of science to law to understand evidences for crime investigation. Forensic scientists are investigators that collect evidences at the crime scene and analyse it uses technology to reveal scientific evidence in a range of fields. Physical evidence are included things that can be seen, whether with the naked eye or through the use of magnification or other analytical tools. Some of this evidence is categorized as impression evidence2.In this report I’ll determine the areas of forensic science that are relevant to particular investigation and setting out in what method the forensic science procedures I have recognized that would be useful for the particular crime scene.