JFS Virtual Issue to Celebrate National Forensic Science Week

Twenty-twenty-one marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which overwhelmed search and rescue, recovery of remains, and victim identification efforts. This was the first terrorist attack on US soil of this scale. Commingling and fragmentation of remains further strained identification efforts. Since 9/11 there have been multiple natural disasters that resulted in fatalities en masse such as Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, and others on different scales. Disaster victim identification protocols have been a topic of discussion on a national and international level that have sparked publications on the role of forensic anthropology in these events including recovery methods, primary and secondary means of identification, and trauma assessment to name a few.

The JFS articles in this Virtual Issue collection illustrate the breadth of the role of forensic anthropology in mass disasters, whether natural or human-made.