NCJ Number
84692
Journal
Criminal Justice Review Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1982) Pages: 1-10
Editor(s)
L A Beck
Date Published
1982
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Forensic anthropologists describe the methods they use to analyze evidence in crime situations and its value to the criminal justice system.
Abstract
Most forensic anthropologists in the United States are from the subdiscipline of physicial anthropology and from medicine. Their methods are the same as those used to study age, sex, mortality rates, and pathologies in a series of skeletons of prehistoric people or to examine variations in body structure of living peoples. The emphasis is first on the individual and then on that person's sociocultural affiliation. Forensic anthropologists can identify individuals' age, sex, race, stature, cause of death, etc., from a single bone or bony elements. Footprint/shoeprint analysis is just one in a range of methods that forensic anthropologists can use when contributing to investigations. For example, photographs of shoeprints can provide information on the suspects' socioeconomic level as well as on their biological or physical structure. Other cases illustrate the importance of this specialty. About 30 references are cited.