CRJ 307: Forensic Anthropology

Course Description

Forensic anthropology has recently seen a lot of exposure through popular television shows like CSI and Bones. Have you ever wondered how much of what you were seeing was real? Do the dead really "talk" about their lives and how they died? This course is designed as an introductory course for students interested in demystifying and getting to know the real forensic anthropology. Forensic anthropology is a specialized sub-field of biological anthropology that applies many of the methods of biological anthropology to the discovery, excavation, and identification of human remains in a medico-legal context. In this class we learn about the human skeleton and explore the key methods that are used in the identification of individuals, such as age-at-death estimation, sex determination, stature, ancestry, and personal identification. We also deal with assessment of the different types of trauma, and whether or not we can tell the cause and manner of death. The broader ethical roles and responsibilities of forensic anthropologists are also discussed, including discussions of how we determine race/ancestry, as well as ethical responsibilities we have during the investigation of human rights abuses, disasters and criminal inquiries. (OC).