A COMPARISON OF THE ABILITY OF EXPERTS AND NON-EXPERTS TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN ADULT AND CHILD HUMAN BITE MARKS USING RECEIVER OPERATING CHARACTERISTIC (ROC) ANALYSIS

Fifty colour prints of human bite marks were sent to 109 observers who were asked to decide using a six point rating scale, whether the mark s had been produced by the teeth of an adult or a child. The observers consisted of accredited senior forensic dentists, accredited junior f orensic dentists, general dental practitioners, final year dental stud ents, police officers and social workers. The results were compared ag ainst a ''gold standard'' which was the actual verdict from the case. Comparison of the results between the groups of observers and the stan dard was made using Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) methodolo gy. The best decisions were made by senior/junior experts or final yea r dental students. General dental practitioners and police officers we re least able to differentiate correctly between adult and child bite marks. The effect of training is important and its effects need to be assessed in more derail in future studies. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science I reland Ltd.