Alexis Abril Aldana
12th
April 2013
ENG 102
Prof. LaBarge
Writing Project
3
Part
1
My
discipline is Anthropology which is the science that deals with the origins,
physical and cultural development, biological characteristics, and social
customs and beliefs of humankind. But I
do not want to focus too much on the culture aspect of this field, but rather I
would like to go into Forensics. It is a strange field to
go into, but it is helpful and makes many lives feel more at rest because they
do not have to deal with the pain of not knowing where they are or the pain of
who could do such an atrocity like that to another person.
Forensic
Anthropology is a science of physical anthropology and human osteology in a
legal setting, most often in criminal cases where the victim's remains are in
the advanced stages of decomposition. A forensic anthropologist can assist in
the identification of deceased individuals whose remains are decomposed,
burned, mutilated or otherwise unrecognizable. The adjective "forensic"
refers to the application of this subfield of science to a court of law.
I want to be
able to help the law enforcement and figure out what happened to the victims
and I want my help and expertise to help find the person responsible for the
person(s) death. I want to work with people like the Federal Bureau of
Investigation
(FBI) or any other kind of major
law enforcement. My partner wants to do something with Intelligence and she
wants to work for the FBI or Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and therefore I would be working alongside her to figure out who
the perpetrator is and put them to justice.
Forensic
Anthropologists work alongside them by going to the crime scene and taking as
much data as they can about the body and the scene itself. But the main
priority is the body(ies) and taking it to do an examination on the body(ies).
But sometimes the law enforcement and the Forensic Anthropologists are not that
lucky and just out of chance a body will be found years later and the body(ies)
are badly decomposed that they have to perform many tests to figure out their
gender, age, and how they died. The ones that have been lost for a long time
are harder to figure out because most of the original clues that could have
help are gone and that is why Forensic Anthropologist are important. They use
their knowledge and do tests and from that data they are usually able to kind
the criminal responsible for the crime.
For
the interview, I interviewed Andrew Seidel. He is a TA for ASM 104. He is
studying to become a bio archaeologist, but is interning for Laura Fulginiti,
PhD, Forensic Anthropologist at the lab at the Maricopa County Forensic Science
Center in downtown Phoenix. During my interview I asked him several questions
about the discipline and what it entails. He said that Forensic Anthropologists
make a lot of inferences, do a lot of human rights stuff like helping in
genocides to identify the victims like when Katrina hit or in other countries,
we recover remains, help law enforcement, and a lot of other more complicated
stuff. I asked him what the main goals are for Forensic Anthropologists and he
said, “one is to help the law enforcement identify the remains of (a) victim(s),
two is the application in the legal process and three is that they could be an
eye witness in the court of law.”
I
also asked him for any memorable moments whether they were “happy” or “sad”, I
wanted to know and for the most part they were sad, but they gave me some
insight on what to expect when I am out on the field and dealing with this kind
of trauma. I feel like I would be able to physically handle the scene and the
stench of death, but I asked myself would I be able to handle it mentally? His
stories made me see from a different perspective because I have never known
anyone to deal with the pre-cleaned bodies that one would see at the funeral
parlor. He told me that dealing with children is the hardest thing in this job.
I do not know why it is different when handling children, but it just is and it
sticks to you harder than an adult would. And from his stories I realized how
taxing it is going to be for me mentally. I would consider myself pretty level
headed and I think that I would be able to separate myself from the death and
be able to do my job.
Another
question that I asked was the types of methods that he uses and he told me
about the Daubert's ruling which helps guide how Forensic Anthropologists in
the courtroom. They have to use these questions as guidelines and provides a
good starting point to consider when faced with expert testimony in the
courtroom. Has the technique been tested? Has it been subjected to peer review
and publication? What is its known or potential error rate? Are standards
controlling the technique in place and maintained? And is it generally accepted
in the relevant scientific community?
The
scientific method involves asking questions, doing background research,
constructing hypotheses, testing the hypotheses by doing experiments, analyzing
the data from the experiments, and then reporting the results. My partner has
to do something similar to this. Trial and error is what she called it and in a
sense they are close to each other. So that shows that the law enforcement
works side by side when it comes to things like an unsolved death. Another
method that Forensic Anthropologists use is reconstruction which is used to
reassemble the body and or bones especially if they are badly damaged. Age
estimation (dendrochronology) is another one and they cut a tooth and count the
“rings” the teeth have can help figure out how old the person was. These are
just a few of the methods that he discussed.
Part
2
I
read two articles, “Vision Science Identification Overview” and “Diagnosis of
Skull Fractures According to Postmortem Interval: An Experimental Approach in a
Porcine Model” Both of these articles involve types of methods that are used to
help identify bodies. This first article that I found refers to “Ophthalmic
appliances” which can be contact lenses, glass eyes or any number of things
that eye doctors (Opticians) can do to help improve a person’s sight. But in
the case of the dead they can no longer see, but hopefully these appliances
will help people like Forensic Anthropologist and law enforcement see and
figure out who the killer is and bring them to justice. This article caught my
eye because it is a type of method that they might use to determine the
condition of the corpse and to give a name to the John or Jane Doe. Now of course there are a lot of other
methods that one could use, but in special circumstances people will have one
of these appliances and usually they are made specifically for that person. And
which would lead to (at least hope it leads to) the identification of the body.
Most of these appliances have a number written on them sort of like a scanner
code that is on a product and those codes help to figure out who the victim is
and helps us better understand what happened to that person.
The
second article that I read was about bones, bones, and more bones. The human
body has over two hundred bones and when dealing with a body you have to look
at everything. If it is a “fresh” body you can tell if the bone was broken
before or after death by looking at the bone break. If it is “wet” it usually
has a jagged edged break, but if it was broken while it was “dry” the bone
break straight through with no jagged edges. But if the body hasn’t seen the
day of light in a few weeks, months, or years, one thing is usually the same.
Whether the skin is still there or not Forensic Anthropologists can always rely
on the bones to help piece together what happened to this poor unfortunate
soul. In this article they talk about how bones react under certain conditions.
They performed experiments on bones to see what kind of damage could be done
and how to “read” the bones. Now did they use real human bones you ask… well no
you cannot do that, but they did use animal bones like pigs to conduct the experiments.
Doing these tests helps people like the law enforcement and medical
practitioners figure out how they died and can use that evidence in the court
of law. Knowing how to “read” bones is very important. You have to have a
watchful eye and make sure that you do not miss anything. So by performing
these experiments it is helping other Forensic Anthropologist know what to look
for when they encounter their case work.
Part 3
Forensic
Anthropology is important because it helps the law enforcement. This job is
usually misunderstood because of the television shows that are out now. People
think they know what is going on, but in reality they do not. Not everything on
the television is real. So by interviewing people that are actually involved
with this kind of job and to read about the things that they have to do; I have
a better understanding of what my discipline entails. I know that I will be
doing good in the world and I only hope that I can deal with it mentally. But
as long as I can bring justice to criminals and I can help some families find
some kind of peace, I think I will be alright.
Works
Cited:
Forensic
Examiner; Winter2012/Spring2013, Vol. 22 Issue 1, p24-34, 11p
Journal
of Forensic Sciences (Blackwell Publishing Limited); Feb2013, Vol. 58 Issue
2, pS156 S162, 7p
