• DNA
• identificazione
• odontologia

The identification of human remains is one of the most important topics in forensic medicine. Human identification is a multidisciplinary process which involves mainly forensic pathologists, anthropologists, odontologists, radiologists, and genetics. Various methods are available for human identification, which are based on the comparison of post-mortem data from the corpse and ante-mortem data from the presumed victim.
For many years the techniques of human identification were based only on the comparison of personal belongings or visual identification. This limited the possibility of identification to cases where the cadaver was in good conditions and the possible identity of the deceased was known. With time, identification techniques have advanced. Skeletal and dental remains are used to create a biological profile in cases where the possible identity is unknown, in order to narrow the number of possible matches available in the future. Further advances include fingerprint analysis, facial reconstruction, and DNA analysis. These techniques increase the possibility of identification in cases of unknown bodies and decomposed, fragmented, or burned human remains.
The advances made in human identification techniques allow the forensic community the possibility to deal with two issues that have great importance: identification of missing persons and disaster victim identification (DVI).
This paper will review the issues of missing persons and mass disasters in forensic science and the various techniques used in the identification process.