Forensic anthropologists contribute to the criminal justice system through expert testimony, the majority of which is related to skeletal trauma analysis and interpretation. However, a major gap in the current knowledge surrounding skeletal trauma has been identified, specifically, the data necessary to conduct comprehensive bone trauma analysis with established error rates are lacking. Current methods and standards of skeletal blunt force trauma analysis do not explicitly meet Daubert guidelines that require:​ 1) validated studies, 2) peerr-eview, 3) known or potential error rate, and 4) general acceptance. Traditional approaches in forensic anthropology for analyzing skeletal fractures are often designed around descriptions and possibly a broad determination of mechanism (i.e., projectile, blunt force, sharp force, or thermal). This approach offers minimal guidance for interpretation and can result in subjective analyses, thereby providing little value to the medico-legal death investigation. The analysis of skeletal trauma can present a challenge to forensic anthropologists because it requires expertise and application of scientific principles from other disciplines, including injury biomechanics and engineering.

The focus of this research is to provide a review of skeletal trauma research methods, highlight the gaps within these methods, propose a multidisciplinary approach to skeletal trauma research, and demonstrate interdisciplinary applications of this approach. This collection of research highlights the critical need for large-scale controlled experimental bone trauma studies, designed and implemented by a multidisciplinary research team and utilizing human specimens. The critical need in skeletal trauma research is not necessarily in more research, but in better research;​ a need that can be addressed by a multidisciplinary methodology, which should be the gold standard of any scientific study conducting skeletal trauma research. The objective of this collection of research is to demonstrate how a multidisciplinary approach to skeletal trauma research can improve and impact scientific, academic, and criminal justice communities.