A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE SURVEY OF FORENSIC ODONTOLOGISTS IN ENGLAND AND WALES, 1994

Forty forensic adontologists in England and Wales, as listed for the B ritish Association far Forensic Odontology in Spring 1994, were survey ed by post. The 27 responses received, representing 67.5 per cent of t hose surveyed, were collated. The aims of the survey were to establish the distribution of experience between those forensic odontologists; to confirm the geographic areas covered by them; to establish the most likely source of introduction to forensic work; to ascertain the prop ortion of work involving court appearances; to establish a pattern of trends or common risk factors, if any, of susceptibility towards bitem ark injury in respect of motive, age, gender, race, socioeconomic fact ors, and family background in relation to child abuse and adult sexual assault; and to establish if there are preferential sites for bitemar k injury according to motive. The survey concluded that most of the wo rk is almost exclusively conducted by a few forensic odontologists, wi th little or no experience gained for the majority of those available.