Conclusion

Ethical Responsibilities
-honest preparation of data and
opinion
- some families wait a long time for
ID, need to be sure and do it in a sensitive manner

Professional Ethics
- 1. respect: treating the remains and the families of decedents
with respect and sensitivity
- gallows humor becomes inappropriate (usually
used to ease nerves of FAs)
- 2. confidentiality: refraining from communicating case
findings to others
- medical examiners, coroners, and law enforcement
are largely responsible for press releases
- 3. honesty: providing a complete and accurate assessment of
forensic cases
- recognition of difference between evidence and
opinion
- must distinguish between data and
interpretation
- evidence: consists of physical remains
(skeletons)
- opinion: any interpretations of the remains
using the methods of forensic anthropology
- observations that fall within the realm of
well-accepted information can be
considered evidence
- the mandible is missing
- the femur is broken
- things like, the skull exhibited large
browridges is opinion
- accurate assessment of levels of certainty
- speculation: statement based on few or no
data
- should be avoided unless asked or
very experienced
- possible: higher certainty than speculation,
but is still unlikely
- probable: highest level of certainty
- general tendency: e.g. the
majority of females have a wide
subpubic angle
- certainty: configuration of tooth
amalgams indicates a positive
identification
- levels of probability: can be attached to assessments
of the demographics of individuals represented by
skeletons, as well as circumstances surrounding their
deaths
- convey a precision that cannot be proved
- statistics: not using minimums and maximums in
cases that can be described in numeric terms
- mid-to-late-thirties is less confining than
35-40
- word qualifiers: e.g. it is unlikely that he was over
six feet tall
- consistent: use of this word imparts a possibility that
is less confining than numerical range
- inconsistent: imparts a disagreement with something

Personal Ethics
- 1. political and social aspects must be considered in foreign
countries
- 2. should they undertake an investigation if the conditions
would affect their quality of work?
- 3. rights of victims should be considered (dont want people
touching the body, prefer them to be missing)
- 4. FAs morally opposed to death penalty should takes cases
carefully
- 5. lives of those recovering body or crime may be put in
danger
- 6. justice occasionally causes distress among innocent persons

The Final Report
- this is the written report that states the results
- summary: briefly describes the results of the skeletal analysis
- second part should detail the methods and a discussion of the
results
- 1. background of the case: names, dates, places etc.
- 2. general condition of remains: emphasis on soft
tissue present etc. photograph references
- 3. inventory: osteological and odontological remains
- 4. ancestry, sex, age, stature
- 5. information on antemortem, perimortem,
postmortem injuries; photos, line drawings
- 6. recommendations for further testing
- such as DNA analysis etc.
- after these sections, appendix should include photos
and tables etc.

Courtroom Testimony
- pretrial meeting: with contacting attorney is important so
that the testimony is properly guided and improper questions
are avoided
- remember that the jury is not composed of experts; relatively
non-scientific language should be used
- 1. establishing qualifications: a review of the forensic
anthropologists education, publications, background, etc.
- credibility
- 2. direct examination: FA presents evidence and opinions
- 3. cross examination: tries to impeach testimony
- finding inconsistencies
- prove methods are inadequate
- 4. redirect examination: consulting attorney clarifies issues
brought up during cross-exam
Rendering Testimony
- an increasingly difficult aspect of the job of the FA
- popular TV shows have changed jurors expectations
- working with the media has become more difficult
- standards of evidence have increased
19
The Effect of TV
- documentary-style forensic programs (popular in wake of O.J.
Simpson trial) focus on successful investigations
- CSI and other forensic shows sacrifice realism concerning
procedural protocol, scope of scientific specialties, and
scientific integrity for plot line. Juries becoming increasingly
impatient with scientific explanation and intolerant of
limitations

Dealing with the Media
- courtrooms and legal proceedings have become increasingly
accessible to the media, leading to increased demands for
information and interviews from FA
- appropriate level of circumspection (deflecting questions to
appropriate person/agency) may be spun by media as lack of
forthrightness or expediency

Standards for Admissibility of Evidence
- 1923 to 1993
- based on Frye v. U.S.
- Frye standard: general acceptance within the relevant
scientific circles
- 1993 to present
- some states continue to rely on Frye standard, others
go by Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- Daubert: guidlines for deciding if scientific evidence
is sound and therefore admissible (Judges =
gatekeepers)
- 4 factors: Has it been tested? Published in
peer reviewed forum? Error rates known?
Accepted in scientific community?

Ethical Considerations
- respect
- confidentiality
- honesty
- evidence vs. interpretation (opinion)
- be clear about level of certainty
- speculation
- possible
- probable
- general tendency
- certain

Expressing Levels of Certainty
- levels of probability
- use of error ranges may imply more certainty than
warranted
- phrasing and word qualifiers rather than statistics
- she was in her mid to late 20s
- it is unlikely that he was over 6 feet tall
- consistency/inconsistency
- consistent with age of mid to late forties
- inconsistent with suicide

Since Daubert...
- increasingly important to provide a statistical measure of
degree of certainty of a finding (primarily having to do with
IDs)
- this generally involves determining the probability that the
feature (or constellation of features) upon which a match is
based could be observed in the population at large
- Problem: who is the population at large, and where can one
find data on them?
- Steadman et al., 2006 have compiled a population database on
features pertaining to sex, age, stature, trauma and pathology
from eight separate databases
- likelihood of randomly encountering given feature in the
population at large can be determined for each trait

Steadman et al., 2006
- provide an example of an actual individual
- based on features diagnostic of sex, probability of
observing same set of features in someone drawn at
random from the population = 0.51 (DUH)
- none of these probabilities are particularly convincing.
However, we can ask, what is the probability of observing the
same pattern of sex, age, and stature features in some
random?
- cross product of independent possibilities

Final Report
- Summary
- Background to the case
- general conditions of the remains
- inventory
- demographic aspects
- trauma
- recommendations for further analysis
- appendices (tables, photos)