Role of Anthropology in the Justice System

Bass addresses the role of anthropology in the justice system as he details in some of his stories how his work has helped to solve a case. In the case of James Grizzle, for instance, it was Bass’s study of Grizzle’s remains that helped to determine he did not simply die in a house fire. For another victim, Bill Rodriguez’s study of flies and their attraction to bloody wounds resulted in the cause of death being changed to murder rather than unknown. In another case, Bass assisted the wife of an accused murderer who wanted to clear her husband’s name.

In the Grizzle case, Bass determined that Grizzle had not only been shot, but he had also been blown apart by dynamite and then burned in a house fire in an attempt to cover his murder. Bass says...