NCJ Number
131262
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 36 Issue: 4 Dated: (July 1991) Pages: 1162-1169
Date Published
1991
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The auricular surface (AS) aging technique is examined as a single aging factor with particular focus on its applicability to individuals of different sex and race.
Abstract
In this technique, the age at death is estimated on the basis of metamorphosis of the AS of the ileum. A random sample of 189 skeletons from the Terry Collection, housed at the Smithsonian Institution, was tested statistically with analysis of variance using error to estimate age at death as the dependent variable and race and sex as the independent variables. The results indicate that the amount of degenerative changes in the AS was not dependent upon race or sex in any given age category. However, the rate of change in the AS was too variable across individuals to be used as a single criterion for age estimation. It tends to overage younger individuals (below 30), and underage older individuals (above 35). Used in conjunction with other aging techniques, it provides additional information for estimating the age at death, but because of its large range of estimation error, it should not be used as the only criterion for estimating age at death. 3 tables, 1 figure, and 5 references (Author abstract modified)