Lab 2 - Rules of Evidence & Basic Research in Forensic Anthropology

RULES OF EVIDENCE & BASIC Lab #2
RESEARCH IN FORENSIC ASM 275
ANTHROPOLOGY M.Vannelli

, LEGALITY & FORENSIC
ANTHROPOLOGY
Defining Forensic Anthropology Legal Implication
• Forensic anthropology is a relatively young • History of the Rules of Evidence
field, born out of biological anthropology • The passing of the Daubert ruling
• Biological Anthropology • Pseudoscience
• A subfield of anthropology that studies • A study that has the appearance of
the biological diversity of humans and following the scientific method and
non-humans being based on sound scientific
• Initially the field applied the methods of the principles but is not
biological profile developed in skeletal • Response to the Daubert Ruling → to
biology to crime scene investigation improve the scientific rigor of the research in
• When defining forensic anthropology… are the field
their methods appropriate for the legal • Estimation of the rate of error
setting? • Accuracy and Precision, Random Error,
Systematic Error, Inter-Observer Error, Intra-
Observer Error