Conclusion Language
Definition
The standardised five-level scale the ABFO recommends for bite-mark opinions: identification, consistent with, inconclusive, excluded, and unsuitable for comparison. Each level has a defined evidential meaning.
- Issuing body
- ABFO
- Domain
- Bite-mark opinion reporting
- Levels
- 5: identification, consistent with, inconclusive, excluded, unsuitable
- Purpose
- Standardise evidential meaning of conclusions
Common questions
Why does bite-mark conclusion language need a standardised five-level scale rather than free-text opinions?+
Bite-mark comparison has faced sustained scientific criticism over inconsistent conclusions between examiners, and a fixed scale forces each opinion into a defined category with an agreed evidential meaning, which makes conclusions more comparable across cases and more transparent to a court evaluating the weight to give them.
What does the 'unsuitable for comparison' category mean in practice?+
It signals that the injury pattern lacks sufficient detail, distortion is too severe, or the pattern does not have enough individualising features to support any comparison at all, distinct from 'excluded', which is an affirmative finding that a specific suspect's dentition does not match.
Related terms
- Bite-Mark Analysis
- A pattern-comparison discipline in which a forensic odontologist attempts to link a bite wound on a victim to the dentition of a...
- Daubert Standard
- The US federal evidentiary standard (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 1993) requiring that expert testimony be based on scientifically valid methods with...
- Dental Identification
- The process of comparing antemortem dental records (radiographs, charts, models) against postmortem dental findings to establish or exclude identity. When records are...
- Expert Witness
- A person whose specialised knowledge is accepted by a court and who gives opinion evidence, not just factual evidence. Forensic auditors frequently...
- Frye Standard
- The US legal test for admissibility of scientific evidence, originating from Frye v. United States (1923), which required that a technique be...