Determination of Adult Age at Death in the Forensic Context Eric Baccino and Aurore Schmitt
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Adult Age at Death 259 Chapter 11 Determination of Adult Age at Death in the Forensic Context Eric Baccino and Aurore Schmitt Summary Age-at-death assessment faces biological and methodological problems. Age-related processes show great variation, both within and between populations. However, in foren- sic contexts, this parameter is crucial for identification, and both accuracy and reliabil- ity are required. Rather than proposing a list of various methods, the aim of this chapter is to suggest the most appropriate methods according to the indicators available for each case. The advantages and limits of the techniques presented are discussed. When most appropriate indicators are not available, the authors recommend avoiding age-at- death estimation. Key Words: Age at death; adult; pubis symphysis; sacropelvic surface; fourth rib; clavicle; periodontosis; root translucency. 1. INTRODUCTION AND PRELIMINARY REMARKS 1.1. Age-Assessment Objective in the Forensic Context Accurate estimation of age at death is a prerequisite for forensic identifi- cation (1) and paleoanthropological studies. However, the aims and constraints of paleoanthropology and forensic anthropology are different, although both fields apply the same methods. For past populations, estimation of age at death in skeletal material enables development of a demographic profile to discuss biology of past peoples and their burial practices. In forensic investigation, age From Forensic Anthropology and Medicine: Complementary Sciences From Recovery to Cause of Death Edited by: A. Schmitt, E. Cunha, and J. Pinheiro © Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ 259 260 Baccino and Schmitt assessment is a part of establishing the biological profile of unidentified human remains. The value of this estimation is particular. Identification is essential for police or justice, as unidentified human remains arouse suspicion. Identi- fication of a deceased person is also very important to the next of kin for economic and financial reasons (life insurance premium and salary payments of the deceased); for administrative reasons (funerals, inheritance, remarriage); and last, but not least, for psychological reasons. It is often more painful and difficult for the relatives to go through the mourning process when the body of their beloved person is not present. 1.2. Particularities of Forensic Cases From a study made between 1997 and 2001 in the Montpellier area (popu- lation, approx 1.5 million), extrapolated to the whole country of France, it can be assumed that more than 1500 bodies admitted in the French medicole- gal structures raise some kind of identification issue each year (2). Among these so-called John Does, 10% are well preserved, 33% are charred bodies, 33% are decomposed (to various degrees, but making a visual definite identification impossible), and only 20% are skeletonized. This repartition has several practical implications for age estimation in a “daily” (not mass disaster) forensic activity. When a body is well preserved or moderately decomposed, it will have to be presented to the family for the wake; this implies that aging methods that are too destructive for the external appearance of the body (e.g., cranial suture closures and the sacroiliac joint) must be avoided. Therefore, in addition to being accurate and reliable, an aging method in forensic cases has to be elaborated on small parts of the body (i.e., easy to access and collect). Moreover, because of the needs of police investigations, the age esti- mate must be given swiftly (within hours or days). Forensic anthropology has to deal with time factor. If the body is not skeletonized, it is necessary to clean the bones that are analyzed for age assessment. This bone cleaning takes 1–2 h with boiling water, bleach, and a metallic brush. It must be underlined that most of age-at-death assessment methods are elaborated on dry bones collections or samples (3–6) and do not take into account this parameter. In most countries, working for justice means also keeping costs down. Therefore, in this chapter, the focus is on the “easy-to-run” methods, avail- able to the majority of forensic teams. This chapter excludes methods that are described as “reference” ones, such as aspartic acid racemization in dentine (1), which the authors have been unable to carry out because of technical difficulties. These difficulties are Adult Age at Death 261 shared by other teams. In addition, the reliability of this method has not been tested and compared with the more widely used ones described here. 1.3. Inherent Problems to Adult Age-At-Death Assessment From the Skeleton Adult age-at-death assessment faces well-known problems developed in forensic and paleoanthropological papers (6–9). Adult age estimates are based on “wear-and-tear” indicators, such as skeletal degeneration, dental, and bone remodeling. It is nowadays largely accepted that methods of age assessment are flawed. The main source of the problem is the nature of human senescence. Senescence is characterized by an accumulation of metabolic disorders (10). Age-related processes show great variation in the level and degree of change both within and between popula- tions with increasing age (11). Individual senescence is determined by a com- plex set of ongoing interactions (genes–culture–environment). Variation in the biological aging process has profound effects on age-at-death assessment. The relationship between chronological age and skeletal age indicators is nei- ther constant nor linear. Skeletal changes have some relationship with age, but this relationship is governed by many factors (12). The assumption that the underlying biological basis of the age/indicator relationship is constant across populations is erroneous. Therefore, the age of any unknown individual cannot be estimated by applying any methods. From a forensic point of view, it is necessary to take into account that age changes are not uniform across populations (13). When applied to independent populations of known age at death, methods prove less reliable than the results obtained from the samples used to elaborate the methods (14–17). Therefore, in forensic contexts, it is necessary to use specific population standards methods (6). However, one must not forget the variability between individuals within the same population, a parameter that is often underestimated (18). Further, ancestry of an individual whose body is skeletonized or decomposed is difficult to determine. 1.4. Theoretical Basis for the Choice of the Methods As chronological changes of age indicators in the human body do not occur at the same pace during the life-span, the first step in age estimating is to preclassify the case in question within one of two age brackets, children up to 12 yr (when dental development will be crucial) and subadults up to 20 yr (based mainly on epiphyses study). For adults, there are three additional subgroups: the young adults (up to 40 yr); the mature adults (over 40 yr); and the senior adults, or the elderly 262 Baccino and Schmitt (over 65 yr), for which there is no reliable method allowing an age estimation more precise than “65 and over.” Considering that they are a fast-growing percentage of the population in developed countries and that they often die isolated, i.e, found decomposed in their apartment or outside (dementia and run away), the identification problem of the elderly has to be solved. One key factor for the choice of the appropriate method for aging adult remains is the quality of the preservation of these remains; dealing with a well-preserved entire body is a completely different problem than trying to age fragmented body parts (8). It is through this constraint imposed by the case that the authors have developed views about assessing age at death of adult human remains. This chapter aims to provide practical information to professionals who are faced with aging in forensic cases; therefore, rather than proposing a list of various methods, the most appropriate methods, according to the indica- tors available on each case (fragments, skeleton, body, etc.) will be presented. 2. AGE DETERMINATION OF COMPLETE BODIES IN ADULTS (SKELETONIZED OR DECOMPOSED) 2.1. Two-Step Procedure The authors have developed and used the two-step procedure (TSP) for 15 yr (19). The advantage of this method is its accuracy/simplicity ratio (19). TSP is an easy-to-run method that can be used by most forensic teams, with results rapid and accurate enough to cope with the investigation needs. The principle of TSP (20) is to combine chronologically, not mathemati- cally, the Suchey-Brooks System (SBS) for the pubic symphysis with the dental method of Lamendin. SBS (13,21,22) is an age-interval method that is accu- rate for aging individuals between 17 and 40 yr old. The pubic symphysis matures late in life. These modifications are distinct enough to enable assess- ment of age at death. Once the maturation process is over, morphological changes are degenerative and highly variable between individuals (4,19,23,24). The method of Lamendin is a formula method that gives better result for de- ceased individuals between 40 and 65 yr old (19,25). The first step consists of the examination of the pubic symphysis for a prechoice. It enables classifica- tion of the case as a young adult (phase I, II, or III of SBS) or an older one (phases IV, V, VI). For SBS phases I, II, and III, the age estimate is given using the chrono- logical interval corresponding to each phase. If the SBS phase is IV, V, or VI, the Lamendin method is applied. Adult Age at Death 263 TSP is based on the hypothesis that a single method is not relevant for the entire life-span. With TSP, the methods used are complementary and not combined. This approach is completely different from the multi-indicators methods recommended by many authors (26–28) and recently challenged.