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Volume 7, Issue 5 (Suppl) J Forensic Res 2016
ISSN: 2157-7145, JFR an open access journal Forensic Research 2016
October 31-November 02, 2016
October 31-November 02, 2016 San Francisco, USA
5th International Conference on
Forensic Research & Technology
The validity of osteoarthriticmarkers to contribute to age-at-death estimation in forensic anthropology: Employing
an EasternAmerican sample
Giles S1 and Marquez-Grant N2
1Thames Valley Police, UK
2Cranfield University, UK
Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease affecting the human skeleton. A growing body of literature has assessed the use
of osteoarthritic markers to assist in the estimation of age-at-death in physical or forensic anthropology. Current aging methods
in adults include the observation of the pubic symphysis, the auricular surface of the ilium, and sternal rib ends, which often result
in broad age ranges encompassing young as well as older adult individuals, and have decreasing predictive power as age increases.
The prevalence or absence of osteoarthritis in the human skeleton could assist in providing more accurate age estimations after the
fourth decade of life and may have useful applications to partially recovered remains in a forensic setting. This study aimed to assess
the presence of osteoarthritis in a sample of 120 skeletonised individuals with known age-at-death between 25 and 99 years from the
William M Bass Donated Skeleton Collection house at the University of Tennessee’s Forensic Anthropology Center (FAC). Using a
modified version of a previously published osteoarthritis scoring system, evidence of osteoarthritic markers were recorded of the hip,
knee and shoulder joints, totaling 1852 observations. A Bayesian network was used to produce a novel tool for estimating the age-at-
death in unknown cases. Preliminary results suggest that osteoarthritic markers are strongly correlated with age, with a presence in
the >40 year old and therefore may serve, once again, as a useful complimentary method to assist in the estimation of age-at-death
in a forensic context.
Biography
Giles S is a Crime Scene Investigator for Thames Valley Police, the largest non-metropolitan police force in the UK and a part-time Forensic Anthropology PhD
student at Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. She has been an operational Crime Scene Investigator since February 2014 and has so
far examined approximately 600 crime scenes. She holds a distinction MSc in Forensic Anthropology and Archaeology and a First Class BSc in Medical Sciences
from the University of Leeds. During her MSc, she secured a research scholarship at the Anthropology Research Facility (“The Body Farm”), Knoxville, University
of Tennessee. Here she developed a new method to estimate the time since death from decomposition states and conducted research utilising the William Bass
Skeletal Collection. Following her Master’s, she was awarded the “Forensic Science Society Prize”, “Head of School Prize”, “Inforce Prize”, “Top Student on the
Forensic Programme Award” and the “Cranfield Forensic Institute Distinction Prize”. She holds Assosicate Membership of the Chartered Society of Forensic
Sciences.
Giles S et al., J Forensic Res 2016, 7:5(Suppl)