Forensic Data Bank (FDB)
Definition
The modern documented skeletal sample within FORDISC, built from cases submitted by US medical examiners since the late 1980s. Provides reference data on contemporary US population groups, complementing the historical Howells world sample.
Related terms
- Anterior Nasal Spine (ANS)
- A morphoscopic trait: the bony projection at the inferior border of the nasal aperture, scored on a 0-3 scale from absent to...
- Discriminant Function Analysis
- A multivariate statistical technique that derives linear combinations of measurements to maximally separate two or more groups (male and female). The resulting...
- FORDISC
- Forensic Discriminant Computer program, developed by Ousley and Jantz at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Performs discriminant-function analysis on user-supplied craniometric measurements...
- Howells Craniometric Database
- A dataset of 82 standard craniometric measurements on over 2,500 adult skulls from more than 30 population groups worldwide, assembled by W.W....
- Malar Tubercle
- A small bony protuberance on the inferior surface of the malar (zygomatic) bone, scored as present or absent. Higher frequency in East...
- Morphoscopic Traits
- Non-metric cranial features assessed on ordinal or nominal scales (anterior nasal spine, malar tubercle, nasal bone shape, post-bregmatic depression, inferior nasal aperture...
- Population Affinity
- The preferred modern forensic-anthropological term for the relationship between an unidentified individual's skeletal morphology and a modern reference population. Replaces the older...
- Posterior Probability
- The probability, returned by FORDISC, that the unknown skull belongs to the classified reference group, given that it must belong to one...
- Typicality Probability
- In FORDISC analysis, the probability that the unknown skull is a typical member of the best-matching reference group, based on Mahalanobis distance....
Explained in
- Ancestry from Cranial Morphology and FORDISCThe modern documented skeletal sample within FORDISC, built from cases submitted by US medical examiners since the late 1980s. Provides reference data on conte...