Open AccessThe Role of Forensic Dentistry for Identification of a Criminal Sexual Assault: A Casework Report
Author(s) -
Cristiana Palmela Pereira
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of civil and legal sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2169-0170
DOI - 10.4172/2169-0170.1000138
Subject(s) - sexual assault , forensic science , criminology , identification (biology) , criminal law , forensic dentistry , forensic odontology , forensic identification , forensic genetics , psychology , law , political science , medicine , poison control , medical emergency , human factors and ergonomics , history , dentistry , biology , botany , archaeology , veterinary medicine , allele , biochemistry , gene , microsatellite
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited."The identification of an individual from dental traces collected at the crime scene is one of the objectives of the
criminal investigation. When, at the crime scene, objects are found with tooth marks, the intervention of Forensic Dentistry may represent the only way to obtain positive identification of the author’s bite mark. The forensic analysis of a bite mark consists of detection, recognition, description and comparison of bite marks on either individuals or inanimate objects. In this medico-legal casework, a sexual assault, the victim of the crime presented to the forensic examination had a mark on her left arm consistent with a bite mark, probably from the aggressor during the crime perpetration. The protocol followed in this medico-legal casework study is a scientific analysis of the facts which when presented in the court will be defendable under ruthless cross-examination. The pattern association of dental features in this sexual abuse case demonstrated a degree of concordance present between the tooth marks in the victim’s body and the suspect´s dentition.