ABSTRACT
Forensic anthropologists are well-established as a visible and necessary part of the medicolegal team that determines an unknown victim’s identity, analyzes traumatic injuries, establishes time-since-death, dierentiates human from nonhuman bone, creates a biological prole for unknown human remains, and testies in court proceedings regarding these issues (Stewart 1979; Ubelaker 1999). Forensic anthropologists also provide support to law enforcement during the search and recovery phase, education to their peers, and outreach to the community. Most of these roles fall under the aegis of the medical examiner, coroner, or justice of the peace who has jurisdiction
Introduction .......................................................................................................... 23 e Facilities ........................................................................................................ 26 Duties and Sta .....................................................................................................31 Duties of the Forensic Anthropologist .............................................................. 34
Field Recovery ............................................................................................. 34 Mechanisms of Case Assignment ............................................................ 37
Laboratory Analysis of Skeletal and Decomposing Remains ....................... 38 Maceration ................................................................................................... 38 Skeletal Analyses ......................................................................................... 39 Trauma Analyses ........................................................................................ 40 Positive Identication ................................................................................ 41 Unidentied Cold Cases ............................................................................ 43 Education of Pathologists and Law Enforcement .................................. 44
Summary ............................................................................................................... 45 References .............................................................................................................. 46
over the body and is mandated to certify the cause and manner of death (Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 11; Texas Code of Criminal Procedure 2003). While the forensic anthropologist may determine the mechanism of injury and whether the traumatic insult occurred ante-, peri-, or postmortem, the forensic pathologist is tasked with establishing the mechanism that caused death and ruling on the manner of death, that is, suicide, homicide, natural, or accidental. In some jurisdictions, a hospital pathologist conducts the autopsy and provides ndings to the coroner or justice of the peace who issues the death certicate. e forensic anthropologist can be called upon to supplement autopsy ndings in a variety of ways.
