stature

aspects of the biological profile

age, ancestry, sex, stature

reported stature

self-reported stature

biological stature

living height

cadaveric stature

measured height after death

forensic stature

estimated from skeleton

anatomical method

sum up ALL elements, convert skeletal stature to living stature

mathematical method

use lengths of single (or multiple) elements to estimate stature; relies on consistent relationship between skeletal element and height

what happens to stature when you stop growing

degeneration

what happens to stature when you start shrinking

diurnal changes (an inch or more)

why cant we predict exact stature

fluctuations throughout life, human variation, problems with documented stature

long bones represent what

a persons maximum stature

fully method

sum of height of all elements that contribute to height (was revised by raxter)

pros of fully method

doesn’t need to be population/sex specific

cons of fully method

needs complete (or almost complete skeleton), not well-tested in forensics

trotter & gleser sample

WW11 casualties (males) and terry collection (females)

trotter & gleser methods

measured long bones, took maximum lengths, correlated with stature

trotter & gleser pros

large samples, good record of medical stature

trotter & gleser cons

WWII: all young, mostly white, only males

Terry females: not modern, doesn’t account from secular trends, cadaveric statures

ousley method

used FDB, has equations with 90% PI

fragmentary remains models

steele, simmons, chapin thesis

sub-adult stature estimation method

ruff (2007)

what do you measure for subadult stature estimation

diaphyseal length