Forensic anthropology: Encyclopedia II - Forensic anthropology - The discipline

Forensic anthropology - The discipline

Forensic anthropologists do not determine cause of death of victims but their opinions may be taken into consideration by the coroner with the proper legal authority to do so. Their interpretation of evidence can help a coroner decide manner of death, such as homicide, suicide, accident, natural causes or whether the cause must remain undetermined due to lack of medical or physical evidence. The testimony of the anthropologist as an expert witness to the court relies on the training and scientific expertise of the anthropologist.

A forensic anthropologist may be called in when human remains are found during anthropological or archaeological excavation, or when badly decomposed, burned, or skeletonized remains are found by law enforcement. The anthropologist can assess Metric and nonmetric characteristics of the bones to determine the minimum number of individuals, sex, stature, age at death, time since death, ancestry and race, health, and unique identifying characteristics such as healed breaks or surgical scars. Sometimes the forensic anthropologist must determine whether the remains found are actually human. Many times, positive identification can be established from such remains, but often only an exclusionary identity can be drawn.

In physical trauma analysis, a forensic anthropologist attempts to determine whether sharp force, blunt force, or gunshot injury occurred before death (antemortem), near the time of death (perimortem), or after death (postmortem). If weapon use is found, the type of weapon or tool used may be determined by examining the marks left upon the bones. Even cremated remains can provide a surprising amount of information about the deceased individual.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The discipline", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki