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Reliability in individual identification by skull-photo superimposition and morphological categorization of face photographs in malaysian males representing the three major races

Skull-photo superimposition is a scientific method for suggesting identification of unidentified human remains. It acquires especial relevance for countries where dental records are not regularly available for identifying the unidentified dead bodies, e.g. India and Southeast Asian countries that...

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Main Author: See Sim Lee, Lee
Format: Monograph
Language:English
Published: Pusat Pengajian Sains Perubatan 2010
Subjects:
H Social Sciences
R Medicine (General)
Online Access:http://eprints.usm.my/54418/1/SEE%20SIM%20LEE%20-%20e.pdf
http://eprints.usm.my/54418/
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spelling my.usm.eprints.54418 http://eprints.usm.my/54418/ Reliability in individual identification by skull-photo superimposition and morphological categorization of face photographs in malaysian males representing the three major races See Sim Lee, Lee H Social Sciences R Medicine (General) Skull-photo superimposition is a scientific method for suggesting identification of unidentified human remains. It acquires especial relevance for countries where dental records are not regularly available for identifying the unidentified dead bodies, e.g. India and Southeast Asian countries that includes Malaysia. A research on the reliability of skull-photo superimposition method conducted in 1994 utilizing Caucasoid skulls and face photographs indicated approximately 1 0% possible wrong match. Moreover, the equipments used during that research were those available at that time. The reliability of skull-photo superimposition using Malaysian samples deserved to be studied. In this researc~ a single male skull assessed as Asiatic and 30 face photographs of males, ten each belonging to the three major races in Malaysia, namely Malays, Chinese and Indian, were used. Each male face was represented in two views, frontal and lateral views. Thus, a total number of 60 superimpositions were conducted. The video superimposition device utilized is the state of the art kind which is far advanced compared to the device used during the 1994 research. Furthermore, the relative enlargement of the face photograph was obtained using the distance between Whitnall' s tubercles which assured imposing a condition; it was not done in the earlier research. The superimposed images were examined for the match using the guidelines which included studies of the profile flow in addition to landmark correlations. The result indicated that all the 30 male face photographs could be excluded and there was no wrong match among them. Besides, the traits enabling exclusion were studied. Imposing inter-Whitnall' s tubercular distance as an enlargement parameter indicated non-correlation at the level of the gnathion in 23 of the samples. This is explainable as due to the longer total facial height in the skull. Asymmetry in superimposed images enabled excluding 5 of the samples in which the skull length and face length were comparable. Non-correlation in tissue thickness excluded 2 samples. It is shown that imposing an anatomical parameter for obtaining the face enlargement and application of state of the art equipment and methodology led to increase in the reliability of identification using skull-photo superimposition method. In Malaysia, superimposition-based evidence has been accepted in the courts although the expert was from a foreign country. The fmdings of this research indicate the scope for popularizing skull-photo superimposition as a regular method for identifying the unidentified dead bodies in Malaysia. Pusat Pengajian Sains Perubatan 2010 Monograph NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.usm.my/54418/1/SEE%20SIM%20LEE%20-%20e.pdf See Sim Lee, Lee (2010) Reliability in individual identification by skull-photo superimposition and morphological categorization of face photographs in malaysian males representing the three major races. Other. Pusat Pengajian Sains Perubatan. (Submitted)
institution Universiti Sains Malaysia
building Hamzah Sendut Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Sains Malaysia
content_source USM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://eprints.usm.my/
language English
topic H Social Sciences
R Medicine (General)
spellingShingle H Social Sciences
R Medicine (General)
See Sim Lee, Lee
Reliability in individual identification by skull-photo superimposition and morphological categorization of face photographs in malaysian males representing the three major races
description Skull-photo superimposition is a scientific method for suggesting identification of unidentified human remains. It acquires especial relevance for countries where dental records are not regularly available for identifying the unidentified dead bodies, e.g. India and Southeast Asian countries that includes Malaysia. A research on the reliability of skull-photo superimposition method conducted in 1994 utilizing Caucasoid skulls and face photographs indicated approximately 1 0% possible wrong match. Moreover, the equipments used during that research were those available at that time. The reliability of skull-photo superimposition using Malaysian samples deserved to be studied. In this researc~ a single male skull assessed as Asiatic and 30 face photographs of males, ten each belonging to the three major races in Malaysia, namely Malays, Chinese and Indian, were used. Each male face was represented in two views, frontal and lateral views. Thus, a total number of 60 superimpositions were conducted. The video superimposition device utilized is the state of the art kind which is far advanced compared to the device used during the 1994 research. Furthermore, the relative enlargement of the face photograph was obtained using the distance between Whitnall' s tubercles which assured imposing a condition; it was not done in the earlier research. The superimposed images were examined for the match using the guidelines which included studies of the profile flow in addition to landmark correlations. The result indicated that all the 30 male face photographs could be excluded and there was no wrong match among them. Besides, the traits enabling exclusion were studied. Imposing inter-Whitnall' s tubercular distance as an enlargement parameter indicated non-correlation at the level of the gnathion in 23 of the samples. This is explainable as due to the longer total facial height in the skull. Asymmetry in superimposed images enabled excluding 5 of the samples in which the skull length and face length were comparable. Non-correlation in tissue thickness excluded 2 samples. It is shown that imposing an anatomical parameter for obtaining the face enlargement and application of state of the art equipment and methodology led to increase in the reliability of identification using skull-photo superimposition method. In Malaysia, superimposition-based evidence has been accepted in the courts although the expert was from a foreign country. The fmdings of this research indicate the scope for popularizing skull-photo superimposition as a regular method for identifying the unidentified dead bodies in Malaysia.
format Monograph
author See Sim Lee, Lee
author_facet See Sim Lee, Lee
author_sort See Sim Lee, Lee
title Reliability in individual identification by skull-photo superimposition and morphological categorization of face photographs in malaysian males representing the three major races
title_short Reliability in individual identification by skull-photo superimposition and morphological categorization of face photographs in malaysian males representing the three major races
title_full Reliability in individual identification by skull-photo superimposition and morphological categorization of face photographs in malaysian males representing the three major races
title_fullStr Reliability in individual identification by skull-photo superimposition and morphological categorization of face photographs in malaysian males representing the three major races
title_full_unstemmed Reliability in individual identification by skull-photo superimposition and morphological categorization of face photographs in malaysian males representing the three major races
title_sort reliability in individual identification by skull-photo superimposition and morphological categorization of face photographs in malaysian males representing the three major races
publisher Pusat Pengajian Sains Perubatan
publishDate 2010
url http://eprints.usm.my/54418/1/SEE%20SIM%20LEE%20-%20e.pdf
http://eprints.usm.my/54418/
_version_ 1743107827673595904
score 13.211869

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