Antemortem dental records: attitudes and practices of forensic dentists

This study was designed to provide insight concerning the attitudes and practices of forensic dentists regarding antemortem dental records reviewed for purposes of dental identification. Forensic dentists were invited to participate in a 10 item survey. The majority of the respondents reported a considerable amount of experience in dental identifications of the deceased. Sixty-six percent reported having suspected dental negligence or fraud in their antemortem record reviews. Only 17% believe that a forensic dentist should report suspected dental negligence, while 31% agree that dental fraud should be reported. Their response to additional issues addressed in the study suggests diversity in the practices and attitudes of forensic dentists in the use of antemortem dental records. In conclusion, opening a dialogue among practicing forensic dentists may lead to a standardized set of recommendations by the appropriate societies in the forensic dental community.     

Antemortem records of forensic significance among edentulous individuals

The identification of edentulous individuals is problematic due to poor provision of labelled dental prostheses. Dental records may still provide useful information for odontologists in the comparative identification process. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of forensically significant information contained within the dental records of a population of denture wearers attending the University of Manchester School of Dentistry. Two hundred and two dental records were examined and a proforma completed. The mean age of the patients was 72 years. Medical history were absent in 4% of all records and only 67.8% of the written records were rated as good. Thirty-two percent of the records contained one or more panoramic radiographs but 30% of these were over 3 years old rendering their usefulness in identification procedures questionable. In total only 18% of the examined records contained antemortem information that would enable identification. These data suggest that the process of denture marking is an essential in order to ensure that the identification of this population can be undertaken expediently by dental means.     

Pinpointing TomTom location records: A forensic analysis

TomTom GPS navigation devices are one of the most popular kinds of satellite navigation devices in the UK, and are increasingly being examined in criminal cases to identify data of evidential value. This article outlines the format of TomTom location records and shows how these can be automatically extracted, enabling deleted location entries to be recovered. In addition, it shows how the type of a record – e.g. home or favourite location – can be determined and how to identify locations where the TomTom has actually been, as opposed to destinations which have been entered into the device. This information has been used in a number of different investigations including cases of kidnap, grooming, murder and terrorism, and can be of vital importance in cases where hundreds or even thousands of location entries are recovered from a TomTom device.     

On the added value of forensic science and grand innovation challenges for the forensic community

In this paper the insights and results are presented of a long term and ongoing improvement effort within the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) to establish a valuable innovation programme. From the overall perspective of the role and use of forensic science in the criminal justice system, the concepts of Forensic Information Value Added (FIVA) and Forensic Information Value Efficiency (FIVE) are introduced. From these concepts the key factors determining the added value of forensic investigations are discussed; Evidential Value, Relevance, Quality, Speed and Cost. By unravelling the added value of forensic science and combining this with the future needs and scientific and technological developments, six forensic grand challenges are introduced: i) Molecular Photo-fitting; ii) chemical imaging, profiling and age estimation of finger marks; iii) Advancing Forensic Medicine; iv) Objective Forensic Evaluation; v) the Digital Forensic Service Centre and vi) Real time In-Situ Chemical Identification. Finally, models for forensic innovation are presented that could lead to major international breakthroughs on all these six themes within a five year time span. This could cause a step change in the added value of forensic science and would make forensic investigative methods even more valuable than they already are today.     

Ontogeny and dental genetics in forensic problems

Teeth are an excellent and reliable source of information useful in establishing identities in the absence of dental records providing that matching dental casts or teeth of other possibly related family members are available and that information on dental trait frequencies can be obtained. Such demographic data is generally available from physical or odontological anthropology departments in universities or museums. The data collected is subjected to statistical scrutiny and treatment of probability methodology.     

司法精神病鉴定证据价值论

司法精神病鉴定作为科学的认识活动,由于其本身的固有属性及诸多因素之影响,其鉴定结论在很大程度上具有不确定性.因此,要求法官在采信鉴定结论之前,必须结合司法精神病鉴定的特点、司法精神病鉴定结论的证据属性,分析、判断其证据价值.并通过对相关制度的完善,充分发挥庭审质证之功能,帮助法官提升对司法精神病鏊定结论形成内心确信的准确性.     

The USS Iowa disaster: success of the forensic dental team

The authors record the contributions of dentistry to the identification of the crew members who were in one of the most significant peacetime military accidents in U.S. Navy history-the April 1989 explosion in a gun turret on the battleship USS Iowa and the deaths of 47 U.S. Navy personnel. Dental identification was the primary means of identification for most because a very high percentage of the bodies were burned or fragmented. The dental-identification team's success was a direct result of its preparedness, its use of dental personnel with mass-disaster experience, and the overall excellent quality of the antemortem dental records. The dental-identification team's successful involvement in the USS Iowa tragedy was considered a model for success and therefore was instrumental in contributing to the development of the American Board of Forensic Odontology "Guidelines for the Development of a Disaster Dental Identification Team."     

Identification in forensic medicine--significance and proof value

Strictly speaking, identity in forensic identification can--if need be--be established by the evidence of living persons. Otherwise, the entire identity can only be determined by assessing the individual parts of the corpse, whereby the different characteristics of the objects of examination have a different probative force, according to the frequency of their occurrence. In skull identification, by taking soft tissue thickness into consideration, with the help of modern photographic or electronical super projection processes, so many (theoretical) points of comparison come to the fore, that, in most cases, identity is evident due to the numerous agreeable reference points, which are apparent in suitable, comparable material (photographs).     

The forensic evaluation of dental injuries in Istanbul, Turkey

When a person is wounded in Turkey, he first attends hospital for treatment. The hospital is responsible for a report describing his injuries and their treatment and prognosis. The patient is then scanned by a specialist in forensic medicine who provides a final official report. In that report the lesions, the prognosis (including whether the injuries are life threatening or not) and the projected days away from daily activity are shown. In this study 18,317 cases which were examined in the second and the third Specialization Board of the Council of Forensic Medicine during 1996 were analyzed. Among them 112 cases were dental injuries. Dental injuries are reviewed according to their sex, causation, detail of injury, and they are compared to other studies.     

The use of dental aging techniques in forensic odontological practice

Many studies have been published describing numerous techniques to determine the aging of individuals from dental tissues. However, few case reports demonstrate how such techniques can be employed by the forensic odontologist undertaking casework. Indeed, many of the techniques are highly complex and utilize equipment not generally available to odontologists outside of the university or hospital systems. This paper describes five cases where dental aging was used for identification in the absence of materials for any other techniques. In each case the Bang and Ramm method was employed using sectioned teeth. Teeth were sectioned, photographed, and scaled in image analysis software. Bang and Ramm equations were employed, and in each case an age was derived. The estimated age was supplied to the coroner, who was able to use the information to positively identify five individuals for whom no other identification system was feasible.     

The forensic entomologist in the context of the forensic pathologist's role.

An adequate death investigation requires the combined efforts and cooperation of experts in different disciplines: crime scene technicians, death investigators, forensic pathologists, anthropologists, entomologists, other medical and non-medical professionals. These front-line experts play a crucial role in every death investigation process. The forensic pathologist normally has the legal authority to take charge of the dead body at a death scene and his primary functions are the exterior and interior examination of the cadaver by analyzing the extent of antemortem injuries and the postmortem changes and the recovery of physical evidence. He is responsible for determining how, when and why of any death which is the result of violence, suspicious or unexplained circumstances or a death which is sudden or unattended, defending and explaining the reasons for making these diagnoses in a courtroom. The forensic entomologist can provide invaluable aid in death cases where human remains are colonized by insects and in the overall investigation. His principal role is to identify the arthropods associated with such cases and to analyze entomological data for interpreting insect evidence. He is responsible for determining the period of insect activity according to all the variables affecting insect invasion of remains and their development. The major goal of medico-criminal entomology is to contribute to the determination of the time, cause, manner and place of the investigated death (especially on badly decomposed corpses or skeletonized human remains) with the support of all the elements which can be inferred from the study of insects found on the cadaver or nearby. The application of techniques devised recently in forensic entomology can allow experts in the field to collect strong entomological evidence and provide useful information not only in a death investigation including movement or storage of the remains following death, time of dismemberment, postmortem artifacts on the body but also at the scene, and even more in child neglect, sexual molestation and identification of suspects. As the role of the forensic entomologist at the death scene, at the autopsy and in the laboratory is defined and well known, this paper focuses on the difficulties that could arise if forensic pathologists and entomologists are uncertain about the procedures that they have to follow, do not realize the value of objective findings or fail to evaluate them. Although every forensic case presents a slightly different set of circumstances and has to be tackled individually, the forensic pathologist should work with the forensic entomologist from the visual observations of the cadaver on the scene, through the collection of arthropods and temperature data at the death scene and at the autopsy, up to the final report with the interpretation of entomological and other biological evidence.     

Intelligent dental identification system (IDIS) in forensic medicine

This study reports the design and development of the intelligent dental identification system (IDIS), including its efficiency and reliability. Five hundred patients were randomly selected from the Dental Department at Police General Hospital in Thailand to create a population of 3000 known subjects. From the original 500 patients, 100 were randomly selected to create a sample of 1000 unidentifiable subjects (400 subjects with completeness and possible alterations of dental information corresponding to natural occurrences and general dental treatments after the last clinical examination, such as missing teeth, dental caries, dental restorations, and dental prosthetics, 100 subjects with completeness and no alteration of dental information, 500 subjects with incompleteness and no alteration of dental information). Attempts were made to identify the unknown subjects utilizing IDIS. The use of IDIS advanced method resulted in consistent outstanding identification in the range of 82.61-100% with minimal error 0-1.19%. The results of this study indicate that IDIS can be used to support dental identification. It supports not only all types of dentitions: primary, mixed, and permanent but also for incomplete and altered dental information. IDIS is particularly useful in providing the huge quantity and redundancy of related documentation associated with forensic odontology. As a computerized system, IDIS can reduce the time required for identification and store dental digital images with many processing features. Furthermore, IDIS establishes enhancements of documental dental record with odontogram and identification codes, electrical dental record with dental database system, and identification methods and algorithms. IDIS was conceptualized based on the guidelines and standards of the American Board of Forensic Odontology (ABFO) and International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL).     

Physical forms of contemporary small-arms propellants and their forensic value

Intermediate gunshot wounds typically produce powder tattooing and/or stippling of the skin. The size and density of such powder-induced injuries around an entry wound are used to estimate the separation distance between the muzzle of the responsible firearm and the entry site through test firings at selected muzzle-to-target distances, with ammunition comparable to the injury-producing round and the evidence firearm. The foregoing is well known to forensic pathologists who document and describe such powder patterns in gunshot victims and firearm examiners who customarily produce the test-fired powder patterns for subsequent range-of-fire determinations. Less known, particularly to pathologists, is the considerable variety in forms of modern nitrocellulose propellants, their effects on powder-induced injuries to human skin, and the value of these varied physical forms in the reconstruction of shooting incidents. These factors are the subject of this article.     

The evidential value of cosmetic foundation smears in forensic casework

Cosmetic foundation products are easily transferred to clothing and other surfaces as a result of contact with such objects. Examination of past cases involving cosmetics in New Zealand has shown cosmetic foundation to be one of the more common cosmetic products encountered. The aim of this research was to determine the most discriminating method for the comparison of transferred foundation with samples obtained from a known source in forensic casework. Fifty-three foundation samples were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID) and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-Ray analysis (SEM-EDX). It was found that a 5 mm2 section of a light smearing was enough to provide detectable results. The discriminating powers for FTIR, SEM-EDX and GC-FID were 98.3, 93.8, and 82.0% respectively. A combination of all three techniques provided a discriminating power of 99.7%, meaning that almost complete discrimination was achieved between the foundation samples.     

A comparison of Demirjian's four dental development methods for forensic age assessment

The aim of this study was to determine the comparative accuracy of Demirjian's four dental development methods for forensic age estimation in the Western Australian population. A sample comprising 143 individuals aged 4.6 to 14.5 years were assessed using Demirjian's four methods for dental development (original 7-tooth: M(2), M(1), PM(2), PM(1), C, I(2), and I(1); revised 7-tooth: M(2), M(1), PM(2), PM(1), C, I(2), and I(1); 4-tooth: M(2), M(1), PM(2), and PM(1); and an alternate 4-tooth: M(2), PM(2), PM(1), and I(1)). When comparing all four methods, the 4-tooth method overestimated age in both males and females by 0.04 and 0.25 years, respectively. The original 7-tooth was least accurate for males, while the original 7-tooth, the revised 7-tooth, and the alternate 4-tooth were unsuitable for females. Therefore, we recommend the 4-tooth method to be used for forensic age estimation in Western Australian males and females, as it has the lowest overall mean deviation and the highest accuracy.     

A suggested classification of bite marks in foodstuffs in forensic dental analysis

Bite marks have been reported in flesh, foodstuffs and inanimate objects. Those in foodstuffs occur widely in cases of larceny but also occur in serious crimes such as murder.Evaluation of distinctive characteristics in food bites differs from the corresponding assessment of flesh bite marks in that the assessment is made on the impression made by the labial aspect of the teeth and not on the biting edge, because the teeth penetrate the bitten foods to different depths.The terminology used to describe food bite marks is very varied and a classification of food bites has been formulated in an effort to bring a degree of uniformity to the analysis of such marks.     

An approach to dissecting the congenitally malformed heart in the forensic autopsy: the value of sequential segmental analysis.

The demonstration of congenital heart disease at autopsy necessitates the careful preservation and examination of the heart, the vessels, and their connections. Techniques preserving these connections and using a reproducible and systematic approach are preferred. The Rokitansky method of organ block dissection, in combination with a system of heart examination termed sequential segmental analysis, provides such an approach. This study is based on the examination of heart specimens accessioned into the Frank E. Sherman, M.D., and Cora C. Lenox, M.D., Heart Museum (containing approximately 2400 specimens) of the Pathology Department, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Specimens received in consultation during a 25-year period from hospitals and coroners'/medical examiners' offices were examined, and the corresponding reports were reviewed. Of 46 total heart specimens examined (1975-1999), 29 (63%) were dissected properly or left intact for dissection at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and 17 (37%) were incorrectly dissected for the demonstration of congenital heart disease. Of these 17 cases, 11 (24%) displayed dissection errors, which did not hinder a complete diagnosis, 3 cases (6.5%) had errors that enabled only an incomplete diagnosis, and in 3 cases (6.5%), no diagnosis of congenital heart disease could be made. Dissection mistakes and means of avoiding them are discussed. Review of medical and family history, external and internal examination, and a reproducible and sequential method of examining the heart and its connections enables documentation of even the most complex cardiovascular anomalies.     

48个X-SNP位点的筛选及法医学应用价值分析

目的对筛选出的48个X-SNP位点进行遗传学分析,评价其法医学应用价值。方法根据NCBI和Hap-Map网站提供的位点信息筛选出48个高信息量X-SNP位点,利用SNPlexTMSystem技术平台进行分型检测,通过中国华东地区汉族人群200个无关个体的调查建立遗传学资料,对48个X-SNP位点的遗传多态性进行研究分析,并进行连锁不平衡检验。结果除rs6527549外,筛选出的48个X-SNP位点在中国华东汉族人群中具有高信息量,多态信息含量均在0.32以上,个体识别率在女性群体和男性群体分别为0.56和0.40以上,非父排除率在二联体和三联体中分别为0.20和0.32以上。检验发现,部分位点存在连锁不平衡现象。结论本实验选取的48个X-SNP位点分型结果稳定,重复性好,在法医生物学研究中具有较高的应用价值,适于开展大规模的高通量检测。