Identification

• Definition: Identification is the determination of the individuality of a

person based on certain physical characteristics.

• Complete: This refers to the absolute confirmation of a person's

individuality.

• Partial: This is when only some facts about a person's identity are
known, such as their race, sex, age or stature
Where Identification is necessary?
• In living cases
Medical Purpose: Unconscious patients
Patients with amnesia
Mental Confusion
Civil purpose: Inheritance, Marriage
Employment or
immigration
Disputed sex
Pension, Life insurance etc
Criminal purpose: Sexual offences
Kidnapping
Criminal abortion etc 3
Living person
In case of a dead body

• A missing and presumed dead person

• Issuing death certificate
• Accidental death
• Accused in criminal offenses
• Mass disaster
• Grossly decomposed or mutilated bodies
• Exhumation, etc.

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 Data for Identification
• Race & Religion
• Sex
• Age
• Hair Handwriting
• Anthropometry Speech and Voice
• Dactylography
Gait
• Other prints
• Poroscopy
Ticks of manner and Habit
• Tattoo marks Memory and Education
• Scars & Moles
• Teeth
• Personal belongings
• Disease & deformity
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Corpus Delicti
• Corpus delicti (‘body of offence’) refers to the principle that it must be proven that a
crime has actually occurred before a person can be convicted of committing the
crime.
• In a charge of homicide, it includes:
i. Positive identification of the dead body (victim)
ii. Proof of its death by criminal act of accused.
• Crime of theft, there must be proof that
• (1) Thing was stolen
• (2) that accused stole it.

• (Corpus Delicti - Definition, Examples, Cases, Processes)

Corpus Delicti
(Body of offence or essence of crime)

• The facts of any criminal offence e.g. murder. The

corpus delicti of murder is the fact that a person died
from unlawful violence.

• It includes the body of the victim & other facts which

are conclusive of death by foul play.

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10
RACE
A biological grouping within the human species classified
according to genetically transmitted differences.

Major groups Minor groups

Caucasians Indian
Negros Australian
Mongolians American
Indian

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Race can be Determined by-
1) COMPLEXION:
Brown – Indian
Fair – European
Black – Negroes
Changed by decomposition & burn

2) EYES: Dark or brown – Indian

Blue or grey – European

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Race can be Determined by-
3) HAIR:
• Mongolian – Coarse & dark, circular on
cross section, dense uniform pigmentation &
dark medulla.
• Negroes – Wooly. Elongated, oval on cross
section, dense pigment with irregular
distribution.
• Caucasian – Round or oval on cross section,
fine or coarse pigment with uniform
distribution.

4) CLOTHES 13
5. SKELETON: Cephalic Index or Index of Breadth
(CI)
CI = Maximum breadth of Skull x 100
Maximum length of Skull

Cephalic
Type of Skull Race
Index
Dolico –cephalic Pure Aryans,
70 to 74.9
(Long Headed) Aborigins, Negroes
Mesati-Cephalic
75 to 79.9 Europeans, Chinese
(Medium Headed)
Brachy-Cephalic
80 to 84.9 Mongolians
(Short Headed)
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 Occiput &
Glabella

Between Parietal
eminences

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 Difference between Races
Features Caucasian Negroes Mongolian
High with
Lower face Flatter facial skeleton
completely straight
projects forward because of the anterior
lower face
(Prognathism) projection present in the
Skull (Orthognathism),
Narrow & malar & midnasal area.
Elongated Square
Rounded
Orbits Triangular Square Rounded
Nasal
Sharp edged Broad Rounded
aperture
Palate Triangular Rectangular Rounded
Normal in
UL & LL proportion to Longer Smaller
body

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17
 Shape of Orbits : Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid

Shape of Nasal Aperture : Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid

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Shape of Palate : Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid

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 Shovel shaped incisors

American
Indians,
Chinese, &
Palestinian
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Cusps of Carabelli

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 Religion
Hindu
Male: Not circumcised, Sacred thread, Necklace of
wooden beads, tuft of hair on the back of head.
Female: Vermillion or cinnabar on forehead, silver toe
ring, nose ring on left nostril.
Muslim
Male: Circumcised, marks of corn & callosities on
lateral aspect on knees & feet.
Female: Nasal ring in septum, no tattoo marks.

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 SEX
• Whether individual of one sex carries sexual characters of
opposite sex.
• A person posses the primary sex organs of both sexes.
• For deciding whether an individual can exercise certain civil
rights reserved to one sex only.
• Legitimacy, divorce, paternity, affiliation, criminal offences.
• Identification of decomposed dead bodies where primary sex
organs are lost.

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 Dutee Chand
Hyperandrogenism 24
25
• Olympics, Algerian boxer
• men have significant advantages in size, strength and power over women,
due in
large part to men's much higher levels of circulating testosterone from pu
berty onwards.
• Because of
the impact that such advantages can have on sporting performance
• Testosterone normal male range is much higher (7.7 – 29.4 nmol/L),
Female 0.5-2.4 nmol/L.
• Increasing the level of circulating testosterone from the normal fe
male range to
the normal male range leads to increased muscle mass and strength
and higher haemoglobin levels.
• Increasing testosterone levels in women from 0.9 nmol/
L to just 7.3 nmol/L increases
muscle mass by 4% and muscle strength by 12‐26%;
• Explanatory Notes_ IAAF Eligibility Regulations fo.pdf
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• Sex refers to the physical and biological aspects of an
individual, which make someone biologically male or
female,
• Biological aspect such as chromosomes, hormones, and
reproductive anatomy. Sex is typically assigned at
birth.
• male, female, or intersex.
 • Sex vs gender

• Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, expectations, and behaviors that are
often ascribed to the different sexes.

• Gender is not made up of binary forms, but rather gender is a broad spectrum and can
change over time.

• The gender category someone identifies may not match the sex they were assigned at
birth. Gender identities can include cisgender, nonbinary, agender, genderfluid, or
transgender.

• There are many ways outside of these identities which a person may define as their own
gender.

• Cisgender refers to someone whose sex assigned at birth matches their gender identity.

• Nonbinary refers to someone who identifies beyond man or woman or as neither a male
nor female. Agender refers to someone who does not have a gender.

• Genderfluid refers to someone whose gender fluctuates over time.

• Transgender refers to someone whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned
at birth. Some nonbinary people consider themselves transgender but some do not .
 Sex Determination in Living

• Presumptive evidence: clothing, body hair

distribution, body contour, voice.

• Probable evidence: secondary sex characters

.

• Positive signs: ovaries in female and testes in

males, presence of Barr bodies and Davidson Bodies,
demonstration of X or Y chromosomes in cells (Sex
Chromatins)
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 Barr Body

A plano convex basophilic

intranuclear structure located
near the inner surface of nuclear
membrane.

Barr and Bertram demonstrated it in 1949.

In the buccal smear, the percentage of nuclei

having chromatin body ranges from 0–4 in males
and 20–80 in females.
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Davidson body

A drumstick like
structure attached to the
nucleus of polymorphs

• It is found in up to 6% of cells in females and is

absent or rarely found in males.
• Davidson bodies can be demonstrated in the
peripheral smears with Leishman or Giemsa stains.

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X and Y Chromosome
X Chromosome: Bright yellow spot on
Feulgen reaction using acriflavin Schiff
reagent. 50-70% of female cells.

Y Chromosome: Bright
fluorescent body on staining with
quinacrine dihydrochloride. 45-
80% males.

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Intersex
Contains characteristics of both the sexes
1. Disorder of chromosomal sex: Klinfelters syndrome,
Turner Syndrome, XX male, Mixed gonadal dysgenesis,
true hermaphrodite.
2. Disorder of Gonadal sex: Pure gonadal dysgenesis,
dysgenetic testis, absent testes syndrome.
3. Disorder of phenotypic sex: Male/female
pseudohermaphrodite, Congenital adrenal hyperplasia,
developmental defect of mullerian duct, persistent
mullerian duct syndrome etc.

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Turner Syndrome

• Karyotype – 45XO
• Most common sex chromosome abnormality
in females
• Complete or partial monosomy of the x-
chromosome
• Hypogonadism in females
• Primary amenorrhoea
• Spina bifida, ASD/VSD,
• Horse shoe kidney

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35
 Klinfelter Syndrome

• Anatomical structure is male but nuclear

sexing is female.
• Male hypogonadism.
• Most common hypogonadism in male. 1
in 850 LB male.
• Classical pattern – 47XXY
• Sterility.

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37
 Hermaphroditism

True Pseudo

• Extremely
Male Female
rare • 46XY • 46XX
• Both ovary • Testes • Ovaries
and testis • Feminine • Male
• Karyotype - • Defective • Excessive
46XX/46XY verilization exposure to
of male androgenic steroids
embryo. during early foetal
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life
Sex determination is required for following
reasons
• Identification
• Participation in sports
• sex specific crimes
• For deciding questions relating to legitimacy, divorce, paternity, marriage,
impotence, rape
Where is it necessary?
• Living Person
• Recently dead person
• Decomposed body
• Mutilated or burnt body
• Skeletal remain
Sex from skeletal remains
Tattoo
• Tattoo Marks
• Definition: Tattoos are designs made in the skin by multiple small puncture
wounds with needles dipped in coloring matter which is attached to an
oscillating unit
• Dyes used: Indigo, cobalt, carbon, vermilion, cadmium, selenium, Prussian blue and
Indian ink.

• Tattoos are recognized even in decomposed bodies and bodies recovered from water
when the epidermis is removed.
• Since some pigment migrates from the tattoo site to the body’s lymph nodes,
pigmentations of the axillary lymph nodes in upper extremities tattoos could be
identified with the naked eye during autopsy.
• Classification of Tattoos
The American Academy of Dermatology distinguishes five types of tattoos:

• 1. Traumatic tattoos (‘natural tattoos’) resulting from injuries (roadside injuries) or

close range firearm(unburnt gunpowder) or pencil lead; these are unintentional and
unwanted tattoos.
• 2. Amateur tattoos: Tattoo applied by anyone at home,
• 3. Professional tattoos (using both traditional methods and modern tattoo
machines): This is created by a trained tattoo artist at a salon or tattoo parlor which
contains several colors and applied uniformly beneath the skin.
• 4. Cosmetic tattoos (also known as ‘permanent makeup’): They camouflage skin
discolorations, such as birthmarks (hemangiomas) or scars, tattooing ‘hair follicles’ into
bald areas
• 5. Medical tattoos:, e.g. medical alert tattoos (like insuline dependent diabetes
mellitus or drug allergy), blood group tattoo, reconstructive surgery (nippleareola
complex in mastectomy),
• Medico-legal Importance
• It helps in knowing the:
• i. Identity of a person, particularly the dead or decomposed individual—his name or
spouse’s or friend’s; date of birth or joining of service.
• ii. Religion and nationality: Designs of Cross or Christ (in Christians), and Hanuman
or Lord Krishna (in Hindus).
• iii. Political affiliations, e.g. hammer and sickle, lotus or right hand.
• iv. Race: Tattooing on the chest and limbs is common amongst the Japanese.
• v. Profession/occupation: Some gangs have certain specific emblems of tattoo
marks. Some occupations, e.g. coal miners leave visible tattoo marks on the hands and
face.
• vi. Behavioral characteristics: Tattoos have been associated with high-risk behaviors
including alcohol and drug use, violence, carrying weapons, sexual activity, eating
disorders and suicide.
• It may also represent social status of that individual.