Ch 1 History and Legal Context

Question 1

Forensic anthropology is

Answer 1

a subfield of physical anthro that applies the examination of human remains in a legal setting in order to aid law enforcement.

Question 2

Forensic anthro before 1940s

Answer 2

no formal instruction, work carried out part time by anatomists, physicians, physical anthropologists who were employed as university profs or museum curators.

Question 3

1843-1911, Father of Forensic Anthro, first to publish works on topics that founded Forensic Anthro

Answer 3

Thomas Dwight

Question 4

What makes up a biological profile?

Answer 4

sex, ancestry, age, stature

Question 5

How are biological profiles used?

Answer 5

to identify missing persons, narrow range for law enforcement

Question 6

What evidence is used to est. a positive ID?

Answer 6

visual, photographic, contextual, fingerprint, dental xray, skeletal xray, anthropology (bio prof.)

Question 7

BIO PROF: how can sex be determined?

Answer 7

sexual dimorphism, pelvis

Question 8

BIO PROF: how can age at death be determined?

Answer 8

subadults: bone formation, adults: bone degradation.

Question 9

BIO PROF: age is…

Answer 9

a range that gets larger with age, the only aspect of the bio prof that changes constantly

Question 10

BIO PROF: how can ancestry “race” be determined? and why

Answer 10

geographic variation (origin of our genome), climate effected certain characteristics of our bones (facial structure, breathing)

Question 11

BIO PROF: how can living stature be approximated? and why

Answer 11

bya single bone, formulas/measurements, bc of data from museum collections.

Question 12

when did recognition of FA increase and why?

Answer 12

1940s-early 1970s…gov saw its usefulness for identifying dead in WWII and Korean War. Central Identification Lab (CIL) est. to deal with dead

Question 13

when did FA become popular and professionalized and why?

Answer 13

1970s-1990…..(1973) American Academy of Forensic sciences est. physical anthropology section…(1979) T. Dale Stewart writes first textbook…(1986) Bill Bass creates body farm….(2008) standard operating procedures formed. The Scientific Working Group for Forensic Anthropology (SWGANTH) formed under FBI

Question 14

1923

Answer 14

Frye v. US - Frye is convicted of murder, appeals to court using lie detector test. ruled expert opinion based on scientific technique must be generally accepted

Question 15

1975

Answer 15

Federal Rules of Evidence, first uniform set of rules, expert may testify, opinion must be based on facts and data

Question 16

1993

Answer 16

Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical Inc - parents sue for birth defects, conflicting expert opinion, court ruled that expert opinion should be grounded in scientific method, peer reviewed and published.

Question 17

1997

Answer 17

Joiner v. General Electric Company - sued bc thought PCBs gave him lung cancer. court ruled that there cannot be a gap between expert testimony and data.