ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 October 1978
Page Count: 7

The Tympanic Plate in Forensic Discrimination Between American Blacks and Whites
Schulter-Ellis, FP
Assistant professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Md.

Finnegan, M
Associate professor, Osteology Laboratory, Kansas State University, Kans.

(Received 14 November 1977; accepted 11 January 1978)

Abstract

Skeletal material of forensic nature is often accompanied by relatively diagnostic cultural goods which can be used to infer provenience and help in the determination of race. However, when the skeletal material is recent or without associated cultural material, the racial assessment becomes more difficult. When only a cranium is recovered, one usually employs subjective criteria for determination of race. These might include prognathism, the existence of a depression posterior to the coronal suture, the relative flaring of the zygomata, or the morphology of the nasal roots. Inevitably, the cranium comes to light which does not permit a differential diagnosis of race based on such subjective assessments. The necessity for accuracy becomes most critical when the analysis is to be used for forensic purposes [1]. In such case, a quantitative tool can be of great value in the identification of a single cranium. Several multivariate approaches to this problem have been developed [2].

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Paper ID: JFS10736J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS10736J
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