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FACIAL REPRODUCTIONS

المؤلف:  Max M. Houck، Jay A. Siegel

المصدر:  Fundamentals of Forensic Science

الجزء والصفحة:  p203-204

2026-07-18

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FACIAL REPRODUCTIONS

To identify someone, premortem records, such as X-rays, are necessary. To get those, the investigator must have an idea of who the remains under study might belong to. Sometimes, bones are found and law enforcement investigators have no good leads as to whose they might be. In these cases, forensic science has to turn to the world of art for assistance. Because the shape of our faces is based on our skulls, if we were to reconstruct the soft tissues of a face on top of a skull, we could create a likeness of that individual. This is what happens in facial reproductions: An artist recreates the likeness of a person either by sculpting the soft tissues with clay in three dimensions or by drawing, as shown in Figure 1. Facial reconstructions require a high degree of artistic skill, a good knowledge of human anatomy and variation, and an appreciation of the human face. These likenesses are not used for identification purposes but are meant to stir the public’s recognition of otherwise unidentifiable remains. Flyers, images on television or in newspapers and police bulletins are used to dis tribute the likenesses in the hopes that someone will recognize them.

FIGURE 1 Based on science and anatomy but completed through art, facial reconstructions are helpful in approaching the public for investigative leads to a person’s identity. Although they can be quite accurate, as in this example, they are not used for identification.