About

What We Do

IFAAS MISSION

We are dedicated to confronting issues of missing, endangered, exploited, and unidentified persons through applied scientific services and innovative strategies. These cases are often related to homicides, missing persons, and human rights abuses. Committed to the pursuit and promotion of equal access to justice, we provide expert technical assistance, policy recommendations, and research & education in these areas. 

VISION

We strive to find truth and justice. We believe that working judicial systems are the foundation of peace and democracy. Dignity is restored and justice achieved when all people have access to these systems of justice and the capacity of such systems meet the needs of victims. Science is the catalyst for access, transparency, and truth. 

RESEARCH

Our research focuses on applied science for human identification, forensic art, homicide patterns, inflicted trauma, clandestine burial recovery and decomposition, enforced disappearances, missing and endangered persons, historical justice issues, torture and extrajudicial execution, war crimes and mass atrocities, and the justice process (including prosecution, impunity, reparations, and repatriation). 

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

We provide range of services in human identification, facial art and digital imaging, living person age estimation, clandestine grave search and recovery, grave excavation, crime scene documentation, geophysical and spatial technologies, forensic visualization, trauma analysis, chemical isotope and elemental analysis, and expert testimony. 

ENGAGEMENT AND SERVICE ORIENTED PEDAGOGY

Education and professional development is provided on topics of applied
science for forensic investigations and a variety of historic justice initiatives for graduate and undergraduate students, law enforcement, medical examiners, prosecutors, and other
professionals in the medico-legal community.