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The Role of Forensic Anthropology in Mass Disasters
Introduction
Forensic anthropology is considered to be one of the newest branches of science but it
has evolved since it was first established as an anthropological and biological field. It has been
used in many instances to collect data about human remains. The purpose of this research paper
is to focus on the role of forensic anthropology in the context of mass disasters, whether natural
or man-made, specifically the process by which forensic anthropologists establishes positive
identification of disaster victims.
Mass Disaster and Disaster Victim Identification
An event is considered a mass disaster if it leads to the death of two or more individuals.
Mass disasters do not necessarily have to be large scale events (Christensen et al. 405). When
large scale mass disasters occur they usually flood the local police departments. This leads to
joint operations involving multiple agencies to handle the aftermath of the tragedies. Forensic
anthropologists are called into situations like these in order to help in identifying the individuals
because often times the bodies are found in circumstances where their bodies are severely altered
making it difficult to identify an individual through normal means; this process is called disaster
victim identification (406).
There are five phases to identifying an individual which are scene, mortuary, ante-
mortem record collection, reconciliation, and debrief. At the first phase, the scene, police
officers are present to assess the site of the mass disaster. It is their job to determine whether it is
safe to enter the scene as well as to identify and retrieve human remains. It is also helpful if
forensic anthropologists were present at the scene because with their training it is likely that they
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would be able to identify human remains that would have gone unnoticed by other untrained
personnel (ANZPAA).
Forensic anthropologists play a bigger role in the second phase, mortuary. It is during
this phase that the skeletal remains are sorted through. It is their job to tell skeletal remains apart
from non-skeletal remains and categorize all of the material that was retrieved based on age, sex,
height or any other biological information. Separating commingled remains is also expected at
this stage. Forensic anthropologists should be able to estimate the minimum number of
individuals involved in the disaster (Blau and Briggs 30). Once the remains are categorized they
can be examined for the exact cause of death (ANZPAA).
During phase three, the ante-mortem phase, biological information is collected from
