Crime and Justice Atlas

How Justice Is Served
Forensic Disciplines and Methods

Forensic Entomology

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The study of insect activity on remains to help estimate the time since death and other circumstances of a case.

Facts
What It Examines
Insects and other arthropods that colonize remains, whose developmental stages and succession patterns are used chiefly to estimate the time since death. 1
Formalized Year
1855 2
Sourced to the subject's own accountDated to Bergeret d'Arbois's 1855 case report, the first documented application of insect evidence to estimate a post-mortem interval.
Known LimitationSourced to the subject's own account
The pace of insect colonization and development is influenced by temperature, geography and access to the body, so post-mortem interval estimates are ranges produced with mathematical models rather than precise times. 2
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Forensic botany and forensic entomology are the two principal biological trace disciplines used to reconstruct scene history and time since death.

Sources
1. Saferstein, Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science
Richard Saferstein, Pearson
2. Wikipedia: Forensic Entomology
Wikipedia: Forensic Botany
Associated With: Forensic Botany, Opening definitionView the Source
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