Measurement Error in Anthropometric Studies and its Significance in Forensic Casework

Dear Sir, Estimation of the biological profile of a deceased is a prerequisite during the identification process of human remains. Highly decomposed, dismembered, and commingled remains are often brought for forensic examination in cases of high-impact bomb blasts, terrorists’ attacks, homicides, airplane, road and train accidents, and natural disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides, and fires. Estimation of stature is an important component of biological profile of the deceased along with other parameters such as estimation of age, sex, and ethnicity. For the same reason, researchers have taken up studies on stature estimation from different body parts. A strong relationship between arm span and stature of a person has been reported in literature.[1-3] Sometimes, in incidents involving mass fatalities, the upper part of the body including arms and hands is available for forensic analysis and stature can be estimated using arm span. In this regard, research by Supare et al.[4] in Annals of Medical and Health Sciences Research is a useful addition to the existing literature.