Forensic Human Identification

Tim Thompson

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 our 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...