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Forensic Pathology Reviews pp 157–179Cite as

Bitemarks

Presentation, Analysis, and Evidential Reliability

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Part of the book series: Forensic Pathology Reviews ((FPR,volume 3))

Abstract

A bitemark is the physical end product of a complex set of events that occur when human or animal teeth are applied to skin or foodstuff. Despite its long history of admission as evidence, there remains a number of significant challenges to its evidential usefulness. Principal among these are the presumed uniqueness of the human dentition, the variable visco-elastic properties of human skin, and the qualitative nature of bitemark analysis. In this chapter, we outline these and other issues and we review the newly described bacterial fingerprinting technique.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oral Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Otago, New Zealand

    Jules Kieser BSc, BDS, PhD, DSc, FLS, FDS RCSEd, Geoffrey Tompkins BSc, PhD, Norman A. Firth BDS, MDSc, FRACDS, FFOP (RCPA) & Michael Swain BSc, Hons PhD

  2. Department of Law, University of Otago, New Zealand

    Donna Buckingham BA, LLB

Authors
  1. Jules Kieser BSc, BDS, PhD, DSc, FLS, FDS RCSEd
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  2. Geoffrey Tompkins BSc, PhD
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  3. Donna Buckingham BA, LLB
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  4. Norman A. Firth BDS, MDSc, FRACDS, FFOP (RCPA)
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  5. Michael Swain BSc, Hons PhD
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Michael Tsokos MD

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© 2005 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

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Kieser, J., Tompkins, G., Buckingham, D., Firth, N.A., Swain, M. (2005). Bitemarks. In: Tsokos, M. (eds) Forensic Pathology Reviews. Forensic Pathology Reviews, vol 3. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-910-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-910-3_4

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-416-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-910-3

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