Study highlights need to replace 'ancestry' in forensics with something more accurate.
July 14, 2021. North Carolina State University
As our society progresses and diversifies the human population, it becomes more important to ensure that anthropology forensic is being updated as well, maximizing potential and accuracy of the field. Forensic anthropology relates the human race with bone structure, and follows with the categories Asian, European, and African. Furthermore, inconsistent terminology used in the forensic science field (for example, different words to describe a race) allows for confusion, misunderstanding and missure within the discipline of categorizing by historical ancestry. Using a default such as race can be widely misleading in the context of forensic science. Population affinity (in the context of forensic anthropology) is determined by the skeletal characteristics associated with groups of people. Bone structure can represent many other aspects of ancestry that are beyond, or even contradicts one’s appearance of race. It is important that forensic science not only analyzes historical ancestry, but reflects modern change and faults in the far too simple terms and categories.
This is a significant point to be made in the science and justice system as a whole; researchers who evaluated nine data sets on data of 397 people from South America (Cuba Guatemala, Panama, Peru…) found that groups that are geographically close to each other aren't always similar to one another. For example, Panama and Colombia, which share a border, have surprising differences in their skeletal characteristics. This study on ancestry and race is significantly important in forensics science because it works to take steps towards reducing racism in the field , and prevents the common fault of marginalizing specific groups of people. As a field, it is important that there is an emphasis on thinking about physical markers in the context of population affinity, to specifically help understand the origins of unidentified remains - it is important that the forensic field recognize this so that they don’t contribute to the structural inequities and racism. Contemporary remains reflect cultural influence on the different origins of the world.
I found that this article was a little confusing to follow along with, and would have preferred a more direct connection of generalizing terms and how they can contribute to faults and inequities such as racism in the field. I think again, there could have been greater elaboration on how these errors on analyzing origin contribute to the problem or targeted marginalized populations, as it was only brushed upon. Conclusively, I would have liked to learn more about specific examples of how significant faults in inconsistent and too general terms have impacted the justice system or thoroughness of a crime case, in regards to forensic science.
posted for S Blazejczak
7 comments:
One thing that this author did well was giving a good explanation regarding anthropology and its uses in forensic science. Not only does she explain why it’s important on a large scale, but she also says things like “anthropology relates the human race with bone structure” to give an example of its use within an investigation. Additionally, the author included how anthropology is useful no matter the origin of the evidence. She uses the example of South American countries to make the point that skeleton remains can differ even if they originate close to each other. Finally, she talks about the social aspect and how things like racism can be involved and improved using this forensic aspect.
One thing that the author could improve upon is going deeper into the scientific aspect of anthropology. She only really talked about it from a broad perspective that regarded social issues. Something else she could have improved on was explaining the title of the article better. She could tell us why ancestry should be replaced and what solution could be more accurate.
This review helped me learn about how social aspects can make a big impact on forensic
investigations. Previously, I only really thought of them as if they were strictly fact-based, but after reading this, I am now aware that issues such as racism can tie into a forensic scientist’s perspective on a crime.
Finn Ruhanen
9/23/21
Forensics
Current Event 2
Citation:
“Study Highlights Need to Replace 'Ancestry' in Forensics with Something More Accurate.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 14 July 2021, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210714110543.htm.
Link to Review: https://bhscsi.blogspot.com/2021/09/study-highlights-need-to-replace.html
For this week I chose to read Sophie's review of the article “Study Highlights Need to Replace ‘Ancestry’ in Forensics with Something More Accurate”. In her review, Sophie exhibited 3 main strengths. First, she does a great job of explaining how ancestry was previously used in forensics. She explains how ancestry relates to bone structure and is used in forensics. This gives background information that Sophie can later use to argue against. Secondly, Sophie does a great job of backing up the article's claim with a specific study. She explains how a study was taken that proves people who live near each other do not usually have similar bone structures. This helps introduce why she is arguing that ancestry needs to be replaced with a better form of forensic science. Finally, Sophie exhibits her final strength by critiquing the article itself. This shows that she was paying attention while reading and makes her more credible as a writer.
While she showed many strengths, there were two particular weaknesses that she had in her review. First, she makes the argument that ancestry needs to be replaced but she does not say what she believes it should be replaced. This would help bring some of her own thinking into the review. Finally, she critiques the article a lot in the end which makes me question if the article is credible. She explains that it was hard to follow which may also mean that the information in the article is not clear.
I had a good learning experience during this article. I had never before heard about the flaws of ancestry so the whole review made me learn something new. I chose this article because I was curious about why the author felt so strongly about ancestry being flawed. This will change my perspective on life because it teaches me that practices that were known for being accurate in the past can later on be determined to be inaccurate.
Citation
Shipman, Matt. “Study Highlights Need to Replace 'Ancestry' in Forensics with Something More Accurate.” ScienceDaily, North Carolina State University , 14 July 2021, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210714110543.htm.
Blog post link
https://bhscsi.blogspot.com/2021/09/study-highlights-need-to-replace.html
A strength the author has is that they explain why ancestry is important to forensics as depending on where you’re from your bone structure can be very different. The author also goes into the possibility of racism having a factor in an investigation due to the ancestry of the victim. The author does a great job explaining both of these and explains how bias can be a factor in an investigation which was something I had never thought of before. Another strength that she has is that she points out weaknesses in the original article which shows that she actually read through the article thoroughly and multiple times. This also shows that the author has some knowledge about this topic because they are able to point out mistakes made in the original article.
A weakness the author had was they were relatively broad with the science behind anthropology. They only really managed to scratch the surface, and it would’ve been great for the author to go into greater detail behind the science. I wish the author would’ve gone into detail about alternate methods other than ancestry that would eliminate any sort of racial bias in the investigation. I know she states that an alternative needs to be found, but I wish she would’ve given an example of an alternative .
Overall reading the article gave me a greater understanding of flaws in anthropology and how bias can play a huge role in investigations. Reading the article has made me want to research possible alternatives to ancestry that would eliminate the possibility of racial bias during an investigation.
Tyler Tanaka-Wong
Mr. Ippolito
Forensics EF Odd
October 4, 2021
“Study Highlights Need to Replace 'Ancestry' in Forensics with Something More Accurate.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 14 July 2021, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210714110543.htm
In her review of ScienceDaily’s “Study Highlights Need to Replace ‘Ancestry’ in Forensics with Something More Accurate”, Sofie Blazejczak talks about how ancestry is used in forensics as well as the importance of anthropology in forensic sciences. First she talks about how different racial groups may have different structures as well as the ambiguity of these terms, which can cause confusion in the field. In addition, she states that bone structures can represent many other aspects of ancestry, and can contradict one’s appearance or race. She uses the example of varying structures in South America to prove that groups that are geographically close to each other may have very different structures, which may be misleading for people who are trying to identify a structure a certain group. Finally, Sofie uses all of this evidence to prove that this study of ancestry is very important because it helps shine a light on the growing problems regarding racism, and it would be very helpful to clear up these racial generalizations just based on bone structure.
I believe that this topic has major implications on our lives today. First, there are generalizations regarding my race, asians, about different facial structures. At the eyeglasses store, there are certain models labeled “Asian fit”, and these do not fit me so I believe that this term should definitely be reformed. In addition, with the growing awareness of racism today, I believe that scientists and researchers should do everything in their power to clear up these hasty stereotypes regarding bone structures.
Although Sofie did a very good job identifying the issues with ancestry and racism, she could have elaborated more on the solution. She did state that these issues must be fixed but I would have liked her to be more specific and provide direct solutions to clear up the misunderstandings regarding racial groups. Also, I would have liked a little more background information, such as when ancestry was first introduced in forensic anthropology.
Tyler Tanaka-Wong
Mr. Ippolito
Forensics EF Odd
October 4, 2021
“Study Highlights Need to Replace 'Ancestry' in Forensics with Something More Accurate.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 14 July 2021, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210714110543.htm
In her review of ScienceDaily’s “Study Highlights Need to Replace ‘Ancestry’ in Forensics with Something More Accurate”, Sofie Blazejczak talks about how ancestry is used in forensics as well as the importance of anthropology in forensic sciences. First she talks about how different racial groups may have different structures as well as the ambiguity of these terms, which can cause confusion in the field. In addition, she states that bone structures can represent many other aspects of ancestry, and can contradict one’s appearance or race. She uses the example of varying structures in South America to prove that groups that are geographically close to each other may have very different structures, which may be misleading for people who are trying to identify a structure a certain group. Finally, Sofie uses all of this evidence to prove that this study of ancestry is very important because it helps shine a light on the growing problems regarding racism, and it would be very helpful to clear up these racial generalizations just based on bone structure.
I believe that this topic has major implications on our lives today. First, there are generalizations regarding my race, asians, about different facial structures. At the eyeglasses store, there are certain models labeled “Asian fit”, and these do not fit me so I believe that this term should definitely be reformed. In addition, with the growing awareness of racism today, I believe that scientists and researchers should do everything in their power to clear up these hasty stereotypes regarding bone structures.
Although Sofie did a very good job identifying the issues with ancestry and racism, she could have elaborated more on the solution. She did state that these issues must be fixed but I would have liked her to be more specific and provide direct solutions to clear up the misunderstandings regarding racial groups. Also, I would have liked a little more background information, such as when ancestry was first introduced in forensic anthropology.
Luke Sheehan
10/20/21
Forensics
Current Event
Link to Review:
https://bhscsi.blogspot.com/2021/09/study-highlights-need-to-replace.html
Link to Actual Article:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210714110543.htm
I decided to read and comment on Sofie Blazejczak’s review on the article about replacing ancestry in forensics with something more accurate. While reading Blazejczak’s review, I noticed three things she did really well. The first thing I thought she did extremely well was explain how ancestry was used in the past in regards to forensic science. She explains how ancestry relates to bone structure and is used in forensics. This gives background information that makes reading more clear for her audience. The next thing I noticed she did really well was include how forensic science can relate to a social aspect to racism. I thought that this was extremely important and strengthened her argument when she added points about how the forensic field must recognize physical markers in the context of population affinity. She adds that racism in the forensic science field will stop. The last thing that I noticed she did really well was critique the article. By critiquing the article at the end of her review it shows the readers that she has a deeper understanding of the article and allows for the reader to know that what she wrote is extremely credible.
Although Blazejczak’s writing was really strong, there are a few things that I would change with her writing. The first aspect I would change is when she adds that she believes ancestry should be replaced in forensic sciences. This is a really good statement but she did not include what she would add in instead of ancestry. If she added this it would allow for her article to have more of a balance between her summarizing and adding her own thoughts. The second thing that I would change in her review would be a little bit more background information on forensic anthropology and ancestry in forensic science. This would allow for the reader to get a better understanding of what the context of the situation is. Overall it would have made it a little bit easier to follow.
My impression of this review was very shocking, I have never heard of racism that has occurred through forensic anthropology with the use of ancestry, this was really interesting. I chose this article because I have no prior knowledge of ancestry and forensic science so I was extremely interested when I saw the title of this review. This will change my perception of forensic anthropology. In the back of my mind I will always be considering if they are doing their job the correct and non offensive way, will this system ever change?
Alex Dessart
10/28/21
Current Event 6
Ippolito, Charles. “Study Highlights Need to Replace 'Ancestry' in Forensics with Something More Accurate.” Study Highlights Need to Replace 'Ancestry' in Forensics with Something More Accurate, 1 Jan. 1970, https://bhscsi.blogspot.com/2021/09/study-highlights-need-to-replace.html.
“Study Highlights Need to Replace 'Ancestry' in Forensics with Something More Accuratehttps://Www.sciencedaily.com/Releases/2021/07/210714110543.Htm.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 14 July 2021, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210714110543.htm.
Sophie captured the reader’s attention to this issue in the anthropology and forensic community and drew attention to it in a sophisticated way. She did a good job explaining clearly the issue of race and misinformation even though it’s a difficult problem to fully comprehend. Additionally, She did a good job of using real life examples/scenarios to help further explain her points. The style of Sophie’s review is very formal and ties well with the article she chose. The diction was also very polished and worked well with her writing.
As for improvement, the second paragraph gets a bit messy when transitioning from explaining what the issue is in the first paragraph, to the researchers in the second paragraph. I also think she could have expressed her opinion on the topic a bit more and further elaborated on what she thinks about it. For the most part, there aren’t many critiques I can give on Sophie’s review, as it was very well written and thought out.
I really enjoyed reading Sophie’s review and I learned something new about the anthropology community I didn’t know before. It was a very interesting article to read and learn about the cultural side of the forensics world. The diction used in her review was very well thought out and I now realize the cultural issues that lie within the forensics career.
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