title: The relationship between cadaver, living and forensic stature: A review of current knowledge and a test using a sample of adult Portuguese males.
abstract: The use of cadaver length and forensic stature as a proxy for living standing height has not been scrutinized in detail. In this paper we present a brief review of the current knowledge on the relationship between cadaver, living and forensic stature; assess the magnitude and nature of the differences between these three measures of stature; and investigate the potential impact of these differences in forensic contexts. The study uses a sample of 84 males who were autopsied in 2008 at the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Porto, Portugal), where stature data were collected from three different sources: cadaver stature was obtained from the corpse prior to autopsy, living stature was obtained from military conscription records and forensic stature was obtained from national citizenship identification card records. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA and linear regression are used to analyze the data. The results show that cadaver stature is the highest measure, followed by forensic and by living stature, and the difference between cadaver and living stature is greater than expected (4.3cm). Results also show considerable individual variation in the differences between the three measures of stature and that differences decrease with stature, although only slightly. This study has shown that the difference between cadaver and living stature is greater than previously thought and suggests that previously reported correction factors are a minimum rather than a mean correction. Forensic stature is likely to be incorrectly estimated and can jeopardize identification if methods estimate living rather than forensic stature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6 Canada; Centre for Forensic Research, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6 Canada. Electronic address: hcardoso@sfu.ca.
authors.forename: Hugo F V
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6 Canada; Centre for Forensic Research, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6 Canada.
authors.forename: Luísa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marinho
authors.affiliation: Centre for Forensic Research, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6 Canada; Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4 Canada.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Albanese
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001344:Autopsy; D001827:Body Height; D002102:Cadaver; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011174:Portugal; D011996:Records
keywords: Body height; Body size; Forensic anthropology; Stature correction; Supine length