Search results for ""Author Sue Black""

Identity theft, criminal investigations of the dead or missing, mass disasters both by natural causes and by criminal intent – with this as our day to day reality, the establishment and verification of human identity has never been more important or more prominent in our society. Maintaining and protecting the integrity of out identity has reached levels of unprecedented importance and has led to international legislation to protect our human rights.Forensic Human Identification: An Introduction examines the variety of biological indicators that are available to investigators and illustrates the basic principles of each discipline. While DNA and fingerprints are clearly the favored methods of identification, they require a prior record and verifiable baseline for comparison. When these tools cannot be used it is necessary to employ those biological factors with higher variation and lower diagnostic probability. This reference introduces a number of different specialties such as, foot- and earprinting, dental interventions, skeletal anomalies, tattoos, facial reconstruction, personal effects, and handwriting. While recognizing that no single factor is an absolute indicator of identity, the contributors explain how a multitude of factors taken into summative consideration can establish a probability for confirmation. They discuss the difference between positive and probable identification and the use of exclusion to confirm identity. Using three high profile case studies, the book addresses the context of human identification in today’s society and illustrates the use of techniques described in the text. Heavily referenced and using more than 120 charts, figures, photographs, and tables, Forensic Human Identification: An Introduction provides detailed introductory and extended information to newcomers and experts alike on the wide range of identification techniques in international practice.

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Developmental Juvenile Osteology was created as a core reference text to document the development of the entire human skeleton from early embryonic life to adulthood. In the period since its first publication there has been a resurgence of interest in the developing skeleton, and the second edition of Developmental Juvenile Osteology incorporates much of the key literature that has been published in the intervening time. The main core of the text persists by describing each individual component of the human skeleton from its embryological origin through to its final adult form. This systematic approach has been shown to assist the processes of both identification and age estimation and acts as a core source for the basic understanding of normal human skeletal development. In addition to this core, new sections have been added where there have been significant advances in the field.

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This book summarizes and explains the main approaches to age estimation in the living, defining when a parameter may be of use and raising awareness of its limitations. This text ensures that practitioners recognize when an assessment is beyond their area of expertise or beyond verification depending upon the clinical data available. Each key approach to age evaluation has been allotted a single chapter, written by an international leader in the particular field. The book also includes summary chapters that relay readily accessible data for use by the practitioner, and includes important "ageing milestones." This book is indispensable where problems of immigration and legal standing, juvenile vs. adult criminal status, and responsibilities of law enforcement to protect vulnerable persons are key issues on a daily basis. Medical practitioners, forensic practitioners such as pathology, odontology, anthropology and nursing, lawyers, and police would find this book incredibly useful.

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