forensic anthropology

American  

noun

1. the branch of physical anthropology in which anthropological data, criteria, and techniques are used to determine the sex, age, genetic population, or parentage of skeletal or biological materials in questions of civil or criminal law.

---

Example Sentences

She grew up in Ohio and received a degree in theater and forensic anthropology from Ohio State University.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 3, 2024

Independent forensic anthropology experts, brought in by the lawyers representing the families, cast doubt on the discovery of a bone with DNA that tested as a match for one of the missing students.

From BBC • Dec. 6, 2023

Omeasoo, a descendent of the Blackfeet Tribe and a member of the Hopi Tribe, decided to pursue forensic anthropology so she could help find Heavyrunner and other missing Indigenous people.

From Scientific American • Oct. 18, 2023

Today in the U.S., the field of forensic anthropology is 87 percent white.

From New York Times • Oct. 19, 2021

And she’s not the only one: Over the past year, debate about ancestry estimation has exploded in U.S. forensic anthropology, with a flurry of papers examining its accuracy, interrogating its methods, and questioning its assumptions.

From Science Magazine • Oct. 17, 2021