Education and Training in Forensic Anthropology

Abstract

The qualifications for a discipline are composed of the education and/or training requirements considered necessary to provide individuals with adequate knowledge to perform discipline-related tasks, including certification or licensing (Passalacqua & Pilloud 2018). Currently there are few available guidelines and no standards for the qualifications of a forensic anthropologist. To examine the qualifications of current practicing forensic anthropologists and to generate consensus-based criteria for the development of standards for qualifications for forensic anthropology, the authors generated an electronic survey. Results demonstrate that the qualifications of practicing forensic anthropologists are varied and do not always align with the qualifications currently outlined by the Scientific Working Group for Forensic Anthropology or the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. These findings do not mean these individuals are unqualified to practice forensic anthropology, but rather that there is currently little oversight or assistance for those individuals who do not fit the current models of perceived qualification, and no means of determining who does or does not have the adequate knowledge to perform forensic anthropological analyses. As forensic anthropology grows as a discipline, the standardization of qualifications will become increasingly important, both in terms of setting requirements for education and training and for the certification of practitioners. Further, there need to be clearer standards for education and training, which are currently lacking in the discipline.