Identification

Personal identification of cadavers and human remains is of fundamental importance in forensic practice for ethical, criminal, and private reasons. Identification consists of assigning an identity according to individualizing biological markers; in the case of unidentified human remains, the first step involves building a biological profile with sex, age, race, stature, and even facial reconstruction, which should then be compared with information on missing persons or circumstantial evidence leading to a possible match. When the possible match is found, positive identification is then performed through the comparison of the individualizing biological features of antemortem and postmortem data of the unknown decedent. Positive or personal identification can be performed by common physiognomic or pathological features, DNA, odontology, osteology, and fingerprint analysis.