The Juvenile Skeleton in Forensic Abuse Investigations

Abstract

Investigations into the study of juvenile skeletal remains in forensic anthropological and bioarchaeological studies has increased considerable in the last decade. Child abuse is not a recent phenomenon as it is sometimes lead to believe. But can be traced back to Soranus who claimed that neglect and abuse of children by their wet nurses was common. The Persian physician Rhazes (AD 860–923) also commented that children were the victims of physical abuse and neglect. Other authors such as Stone (1977) and Kuefler (1991) showed that children in Anglo-Saxon and medieval Britain, especially those who suffered from a disability were particularly prone to physical abuse. In 1860, the French physician Ambrose Tardieu acknowledged the existence and causes of child abuse in a paper (Tardieu, 1860) which was ignored by his peers at the time. West (1888) reported a number of cases of periosteal swellings in