Crime & Clues

I am well aware there are extremely technical medical terms for the bones I am going to describe. I thought that it is much easier to read an article and absorb the information when you are not fighting a bunch of unknown terms. Therefore, as usual, I have reverted to terms like "cheek bone" or "thigh bone" to make things more enjoyable to read.

Part Two

In the last addition I finished with discussing the common methods used to determine the age of skeletal remains. I discussed the difficulties in determining age especially if it involves immature remains. Put more simply it is far more difficult to determine the age of a child based on only skeletal remains. Simply put boys and girls develop physiologically and skeletally at different rates. It is there for important to try to determine the sex of the individual before giving and age estimate. For children under the age of about 18 the best way to determine an approximate age is to study the pattern of eruption of the teeth. Even using this technique the approximation can be +\- 2 years as the child grows older ( White & Folkens, 2005)(Bowers, 2005). Determining the gender of the remains can be crucial in narrowing this field.

What is Forensic Osteology? Well it is the child of Physical Anthropology (study of the human physique) and Pathology (study of the processes causing death). Its grandparents were Medicine and Anatomy. Its other relatives are Paleontology (study of ancient humans and related species) and Zoology (study of animals). Forensic Osteology is one of the newer disciplines in forensic investigations. This youngster may call on any of his/ her relatives for help and expertise during an investigation. At times Physical Anthropology and Pathology may argue about who is in charge but in the end they usually co-operate to get the job done. Not so long ago Criminology approached Osteology and said "Hey, I could use your help". Osteology gave itself the title of forensic osteology.

Technically speaking Osteology is the study of bones. Forensic osteology is the study of bones as they relate to a crime. Many sources will define this as Human Osteology, Physical Anthropology or Forensic Pathology according to the source. I agree in part with some authors that a pathologist's experience in medical aspects and anatomy may be the best person for the job. However, few pathologist have experience in excavation of outdoor site were remains are located. As well, few Pathologists/medical examiners/coroners have extensive knowledge of the anatomy of animal remains. Even an experienced archeologist/anthropologist may seek a veterinarian or zoologist for further advice on remains which are hard to identify.