EDUCATION IN FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY - APPRAISAL AND OUTLOOK

Increases in the awareness and participation of physical anthropologis ts in forensic investigations have resulted in growing concerns over t he training of students with specializations in forensic anthropology. A survey of United States universities shows that forensic anthropolo gists provide training to large numbers of students in basic osteology and smaller, but still significant numbers of graduates and undergrad uates in forensic anthropology. Their work augments that provided by p hysical anthropologists whose interests lie in osteology and skeletal biology. Discrepancies exist in the course topic content in training p rovided by these two groups (forensic anthropologists and osteologists ) which may have implications for the future, especially if some stude nts are unaware of the legal role and responsibilities of anthropologi sts in the forensic sciences.