THE DETERMINATION OF
THE LIMITS OF THE USE OF AURICLE MORPHOLOGY FOR IDENTIFICATION
Asirdizer M, Tatlisumak
E, Ozyurt B, Yavuz MS.
4th Mediterranean Academy of
Forensic Sciences Meeting, 14-18 October 2009, Antalya-Turkey. Poster Presentation. Abstract CD of Poster Presentations.
2009: 111.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: For personal
identification, the use auricle morphology attracted attention of scientists since 19th century. Nonetheless, the number of
articles about identification by using the ear morphology or earprints increased in the last quarter of 20th century, especially
in the last decade. In the present study, it was aimed to evaluate the usability of morphological appearance of ears with
naked eyes for positive and negative identification and to define the accuracy rates in ear identification applied with naked
eyes by experienced volunteers.
Material and method: This
study was performed by permission of the Presidency of Scientific Ethic Board of Celal Bayar University and it was finished
in three stages including the gathering of 120 ear images (60 right and 60 left) of 30 male and 30 female volunteers (between
18-26 ages), the observation of 20 volunteers experienced on the identification, and statistical analysis with SPSS-11 Statistic
Program.
Results: The mean age of observers was 41.9 years (SD: 6,4; range:30-51 years) and mean experience of them was 9.8 years (SD: 7,1; range: 2-21 years). Among 400 matching, the number and rate of
total error was found to be 54 and 13.5% (SD: 12.89). The error rate in the matching of images of male and female volunteers
were 12% (n=24) and 15% (n=30), respectively (p=0.01). The error rates were more than twice in left ears (19%; n=38) than
right ears (8%; n=16) (p<0.01).
Discussion: In the present study, the highest error rate of observers were 40% and the accuracy rates in ear identification
applied with naked eyes by experienced observers was found to be 86.5 % (SD: 12.47). Even if these results were not encouraging,
they were not disappointing also about usability of morphological appearance of ears with naked eyes for positive and negative
identification. At least, this method may be used for first elimination in the differentiation of perpetrator(s) of a crime
than suspicious persons.
In conclusion, for routine
usability of ear morphology in forensic identification, the accompaniment of morphometric measurements and superimposition
technique to the presented method will reduce, maybe remove the error rates, and the accuracy rate will access higher rates
in ear identification.
Keywords: identification,
ear, auricle, morphology, forensic sciences.