Year of Award

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Anthropology (Forensic Anthropology Option)

Department or School/College

Anthropology

Committee Chair

Randall Skelton

Commitee Members

Kirsten Green Mink, Jackson Bunch

Keywords

homicide, FDB, forensic anthropology, cause of death, ancestry

Subject Categories

Biological and Physical Anthropology

Abstract

Homicide has piqued the interest of society through media not only in the 21st century, but also dating back to the 1800s with crime fiction novels. Homicide holds the attention of our society with crime drama television series and has become part of American culture. With the attention that homicide receives, studies focusing on homicide are therefore important. This research utilizes the University of Tennessee Forensic Data Bank (FDB) to examine and compare homicide rates to the Global Study on Homicide conducted by the United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Variables examined include sex, ancestry, cause of death, age at death, region found, and state found. Statistical analyses used in this research include frequency distributions, Chi-Square analyses, Cramer’s V, and univariate single proportion tests. The statistical analyses indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in homicide rates between the FDB and the UNODC for sex, cause of death, and age at death variables. However, the results indicate the FDB is not a reliable indicator of homicide rates for ancestry. Additionally, the FDB contains a sampling bias as indicated by the results for region found, state found, and date of death year. It is the conclusion of the researcher that the FDB should be used with caution when being used for research on homicide.

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© Copyright 2020 Anna F. Hampton