Statistics and Probability in Forensic Anthropology

Zuzana Obertová · Alistair Stewart · Cristina Cattaneo

Jul 2020 · Academic Press

About this ebook

Statistics and Probability in Forensic Anthropology provides a practical guide for forensic scientists, primarily anthropologists and pathologists, on how to design studies, how to choose and apply statistical approaches, and how to interpret statistical outcomes in the forensic practice. As with other forensic, medical and biological disciplines, statistics have become increasingly important in forensic anthropology and legal medicine, but there is not a single book, which specifically addresses the needs of forensic anthropologists in relation to the research undertaken in the field and the interpretation of research outcomes and case findings within the setting of legal proceedings. The book includes the application of both frequentist and Bayesian statistics in relation to topics relevant for the research and the interpretation of findings in forensic anthropology, as well as general chapters on study design and statistical approaches addressing measurement errors and reliability. Scientific terminology understandable to students and advanced practitioners of forensic anthropology, pathology and related disciplines is used throughout. Additionally, Statistics and Probability in Forensic Anthropology facilitates sufficient understanding of the statistical procedures and data interpretation based on statistical outcomes and models, which helps the reader confidently present their work within the forensic context, either in the form of case reports for legal purposes or as research publications for the scientific community. - Contains the application of both frequentist and Bayesian statistics in relation to topics relevant for forensic anthropology research and the interpretation of findings - Provides examples of study designs and their statistical solutions, partly following the layout of scientific manuscripts on common topics in the field - Includes scientific terminology understandable to students and advanced practitioners of forensic anthropology, legal medicine and related disciplines

About the author

Zuzana Obertová is a biological/forensic anthropologist with doctorates in biological anthropology and palaeoanthropology from the Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia) and the Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen (Germany), and in Community Health from the University of Auckland (New Zealand). In the postdoc phase, she was worked on projects on age estimation and identification of living persons (the Institute of Forensic Medicine, th University Clinic, Düsseldorf, Germany), and on trauma dating (LABANOF, the University of Milan, Italy). Currently, she is employed as scientific researcher and forensic expert in the Visual Identification of Persons (ViP) at the Forensic Science Institute in Zürich (Switzerland), and she is also Adjunct Lecturer at the Centre for Forensic Anthropology, The University of Western Australia. She is Assistant Editor of the journal Forensic Science International and Board member of the Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe (FASE). Her research and teaching interests include forensic anthropology, human osteology, and trauma and disease patterns in past and present populations.

Cristina Cattaneo - forensic pathologist and anthropologist, is currently Full Professor of Legal Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy) and Director of LABANOF, Laboratorio di Antropologia e Odontologia Forense. She has been actively involved with the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs in the creation of a national database for unidentified human remains and has since 2014 been the medico legal coordinator for the Governmental Office of the Commissioner for Missing Persons for the identification of dead migrants. She also coordinates the medico legal activities on victims of maltreatment, torture and on unaccompanied minors in Milano. She is a forensic pathology and anthropology expert for various courts in Italy and occasionally in Europe, President of FASE (Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe), member of the Swiss DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) team and Co Editor in Chief for the journal of Forensic Science International