Forensic Anthropology
VIDEO: Forensic Anthropologist, Dr Soren Blau.
Anthropology is the study of humans. It is an umbrella term which includes the sub-disciplines of archaeology, the study of past cultures via their material remains, artefacts and linguistics, the study of human languages, their development and change through time, and their variability; cultural or social anthropology and physical anthropology, the study of the genesis and variation of human beings, including primate biology, skeletal biology, and human adaptation.
It was out of physical anthropology that the discipline of forensic anthropology developed.
Forensic anthropology is defined as the examination and analysis of a range of differentially preserved human remains and may include recovery and scene interpretation of buried and/or surface scatters providing evidentiary and investigative evidence.
The forensic anthropologist has a sound grounding not only in human skeletal anatomy, but also in the effects of trauma, time, burial, and other taphonomic factors upon skeletal remains.
The forensic anthropologist is also required to have a sound understanding of the legal processes which apply in his or her particular jurisdiction.
Traditionally, anthropologists have been responsible for recovering and analysing complete and fragmentary skeletal remains, but they now commonly work with remains in varying states of preservation including fleshed, decomposed, burnt, dismembered or a combination of all these states.
In day-to-day case work, the forensic anthropologist is responsible for addressing a number of questions:
- Is the material bone?
- Is the bone human or non-human?
- What is the preservation of the remains?
- Are the remains of forensic significance?
- How many individuals are present?
- What is the ancestry of the individual/s?
- What is the sex of the individual/s?
- What is the age of the individual/s?
- What is the stature of the individual/s?
- Are there any individualizing characteristics?
- If there evidence of trauma and/or pathology?
If so, is it possible to comment on the timing of this trauma/pathology, that is, did the skeletal changes occur ante-mortem (before death), peri-mortem (around the time of death) or post-mortem (after death).
Identification of the Deceased
Forensic anthropologists may be involved in cases where information from their analysis is important for addressing questions of identification related to missing persons, criminal investigations, accidents, mass disasters (disaster victim identification), war crimes and human rights abuses investigations and clinical cases (e.g. the age of a living individual).
A positive identification of an unknown individual occurs where there is ante-mortem dental, fingerprint and/or DNA information that can be compared with the post-mortem records.
It is only rarely that anthropology will be able to determine a positive identity from skeletal remains, and this will only occur when the bones exhibit some peculiarity or surgical artefact which can be found on ante-mortem records.
The main contribution made by the forensic anthropologist’s work is to reduce the scope of the investigation into the identity of the unknown remains by determining such things as the sex, racial affiliation, stature and age of the person who, in life, clothed the bones.
The determination of sex alone immediately eliminates fifty percent of the population. If age and stature can be estimated, then the scope of the investigation can be narrowed even further and concentrated upon the most promising areas of enquiry, so saving valuable resources, and increasing the chances for a successful positive identification.
Forensic Anthropologists at the VIFM
Forensic anthropology is now recognised as a discipline in its own right, and practitioners contribute significantly to locating, recovery and analysing unknown skeletal remains which come under the jurisdiction of the Victorian State Coroners.
Over the past 20 years, the VIFM has employed a consultant forensic anthropologist. In 2005, this service was augmented with the employment of a full time forensic anthropologist.
Both practitioners have extensive experience both domestically (including the disaster victim identification process following the Black Saturday Bushfires of February 2009 in Victoria) and internationally (including the investigation of mass graves in East Timor and the identification of victims of the terrorist bombing of October 2002 in Bali). Both practitioners are engaged in research and publish widely.