Department of Forensic Medicine

& Toxicology
Prof. Dr. Maha Ghanem
By the end of this course the student will be able to:
 Define and list different types of identification
 Recognize different circumstances for identification
 List ages of medico-legal importance in Egypt
 Review methods of identification (radiology, anthropology,
craniofacial, personal effects)
 Determine sex in living and dead
 Estimate age in living and dead
 Distinguish prints of medico-legal importance
Types of Identification:
1- Criminal identification:
a- Fingerprints
b- Photographs
c- Witness
Identikit is a composite
picture of a person from a witness account.
2- Civil identification: in courts

3- Personal identification: of dead persons

by their relatives or friends.

4- Legal identification: of dead or living persons.

6years: child enter school.
7 years : discrimination between
right and wrong.
11 years: custody of boys after divorce
15 years: custody of girls after divorce
16 years: get identity card
license for driving motor cycle
18 years: full criminal responsibility
free consent in rape

driving car license

first military call
get job in government
marriage of male& females
voting in elections

21 years: civil rights

30 years : person can be elected as a

member in national assembly
40 years: to be president in A.R.E
1- For medical purpose:
a- unconscious patient.
b- patient with
true amnesia.
c- mental confusion
2- Civil purpose:
a- problems of inheritance.
b- marriage.
c- employment or immigration
d- call for military service.
e- disputed paternity

3- For criminal purpose:

a- sexual offences e.g. rape
b- kidnapping
c- determine the criminal personality
1- A missing person
and presumed death.

2- Issue death certificate

and allow burial.

3- Accidents
4- Crimes

5- Mass disaster :
ten or more
person are killed.
natural : floods, earthquakes
and volcanoes
man made:
airplanes , train accidents
1- Circumstances of death

2- The elapse of time since death

3- Antemortem data available for

comparison.
1- General appearance:

Weight

Height

Color of skin

Hair
2- Features:

Face

Eyebrows

Iris

Chin

Nose

Configuration of ear

Portrait Parlé
3- Clothing:
Denote the occupation and the social status.

4- Age

5- Sex

6- Blood groups
7- Prints

8- Congenital anomalies:
Asymmetry
Harelip
Cleft palate
Polydactyl

9- Birth marks.
10- Scars
Recent: reddish or bluish and tender
Old : more dense, white, shiny and contract.

11-Tattoos

12- Photographs

13- Anthropometry
not used now days
Personal
characters:
Voice

Speech

Mental power

Education

Handwriting

Gait
1- documents

Personal papers

Photographs

ID card

Credit cards
2- Jewelry:

Rings, bracelets,
earrings, watches,
lighters, pens and keys.
Careful examination may
reveal a symbol or name.
2- Contact traces:
give occupational data
e.g. Paint
Grease
Flour
Dyes

3-Height :
from the skeleton
4- Teeth
examination
5- Handedness

6-Internal physical examination

and medical appliances:

a- Underlying disease

b- X- ray of the whole body may reveal:

old fracture
prosthesis: plates or nails in joints
and bones
c- pacemakers
d- artificial valve

7- Data from the skull:

if previous X-ray is available
a- frontal sinus
b- skull suture
pattern
c- vascular grooves
in the skull
8- Superimposition of the
skull and Antemortem
facial photographs

9- Facial reconstruction

10- The time that the

body or bones have been
buried
1. Presumptive data about sex are:
 Features
 General contours
 Clothes and voice
2. Probable signs:
 The breast
 The muscle development
 The distribution of body hair and
subcutaneous fat
 The external genitalia
The certain signs of sex determination are:
•The presence of gonads (testes in males and ovaries
in females)
•The identification of sex is of special importance in
the problem of intersex
Sex chromatin test (nuclear sex):

•Female cells usually show collection of chromatin

material (due to x chromosome) Barr bodies.

•The Y chromosome of the male cells can also be

visualized (by using a fluorescent microscope and
quinarcine stain) in the cells of hair sheaths, nerve cells
and dental pulp.
Types of intersex:
1. Gonadal agenesis: No sex organs , -ve test

2. Gonadal dysgenesis: External organs, no gonads

3. True hermaphrodite: Both organs ,+ve test

4. Pseudo-hermaphrodite: sex determined from

gonads , nuclear sex give true sex
•The pelvis, sternum and skull

•The articular surface of head of humerus is larger in

males.

•The distal end of the shaft of the femur is less inclined

in males than in females,
 Male Pelvis Female Pelvis

*Bones Bones are massive , Smaller , lighter and

rough and heavy smooth ,wider.
*Body of pubis Triangular Quadrangular
*Pubic arch (sub Acute angle i.e. less Obtuse i.e. more than 90
pubic angle.) than90
*Greater Sciatic
notch\ Deep and narrow Shallow and wide
*Obturator
foramen Oval Smaller and more triangular

*Preauricular Well defined especially in

sulcus Absent multipara
 Male Pelvis Female Pelvis

*Iliac crest Prominent and highly Less prominent , less curved

curved Shallow , wide wall curved
*Pelvic cavity Deep , Straight walls outwards
Smooth , less prominent
* Iliopectineal Rough and prominent
line Narrow , looks laterally
*Acetabulum Wide , looks laterally Greater
*Pubic /ischium Less
ratio Short , wide , curved only at
*Sacrum Long, narrow, lower end
homogenous curve
*Articulation 1½ segments
surface of 2½ segments
sacrum
•The female sternum is shorter and broad.
The body is less than double
the manubrium.
• The male sternum is long and narrow. The
body is more than double the manubrium.
•The junction between the body and
the manubrium is angular or
prominent.
 Male skull Female skull

*Size and weight Bigger and Smaller & less weight

heavier
*Superciliary arch Marked Less marked
*Fronto-nasal
junction Angular Rounded and smooth
*Parietal and frontal
emimences Prominent and Less prominent and
*Mastoid process rough smooth
*Muscle
attachments Bulky and rough Smooth and less marked
Rough Smooth
*Condylar facets Long and
narrow Short and wide
1. The eruption of teeth (deciduous and
permanent) and shape of mandible.
The estimation of age is done by x-ray in
living and by exposure and dissecting in
dead through:
2. The appearance of centers of
ossification.
3.The union of epiphyses.
4.The closure of fontanels.
5.The fusion of sutures.
6.The level of the medullary cavity.
A. Eruption of teeth:
Deciduous teeth:
Central incisors: 6months
Lateral incisors: 9months
Canine: 18months
First molar: 12months
Second molar: 24months
Permanent teeth:
First molar: 6years
Central incisors: 7years
Lateral incisors: 8years
Canine: 11years
First premolars: 9years
Second premolars: 10years
Second molar: 12years
Third molar: at any age
above 17years.
B. Mandible:
The angle between the body and ramus is obtuse
in infants, right in adults and obtuse in old age.
A. During intrauterine life:
At 5months: calcaneus
At 7months: talus
At 8 months: distal end of femur
At 9 months:
proximal end of tibia
Cuboids
Distal end of femur becomes 0.5cm in diameter
B. After birth:
At 3 month: The head of femur
The distal end of tibia.
At 6months: The distance end of fibula
At 7months: The greater tuberosity of humerus,
The distal end of radius
At 2 years: The proximal end of fibula.
At 3yeras: The greater trichinae of femur,
The proximal end of radius
At 5years: The medial epicedial of the humerus,
The distal end of ulna.
A. Upper limb
At7 years the epiphysis
of distal end of radius
forms 2/3 the diaphysis
 ?
? ?
?
B. lower limb:
 18

18
C. Clavicle:
D. Sternum:

60

40
E. Hip bone:
 Posterior fontanel at birth
 Anterior fontanel at 18months
 5. Fusion of sutures:
•The frontal suture fuses
completely at 3years.

.The sagittal suture starts

fusion at 25years
and is complete at 30years.
•The coronal suture fuses
at 40years.
.The lambdoid suture fuses
at 50 years.
Reaches the surgical
neck at 30years
Reaches the anatomical
neck at 33years
 In Negroid race the skull
has specific characters:
◦ The shape of the skull is
elongated
(dolycocephaly).
◦ The alveolar margin of
the maxilla is protruded
forming a prognathism.
◦ The hard palate is flat
◦ The nasal orifices are
wide.
◦ The frontal suture is
persistent and does not
fuse.
•Prints of medico legal importance:
•These are individual for every person
Man with Lip Prints on Face