Postcranial Sex Estimation of Individuals Considered Hispanic

Abstract

When forensic anthropologists estimate the sex of Hispanic skeletal remains using nonpopulation specific metric methods, initial observations cause males to frequently misclassify as female. To help improve these methods, this research uses postcranial measurements from United States-Mexico border migrant fatalities at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner in Tucson, Arizona, as well as Hispanic individuals from the Forensic Anthropology Data Bank. Using a total of 114 males and 28 females, sectioning points and discriminant functions provide classification rates as high as 89.43% for Hispanic individuals. A test sample assessed the reliability of these techniques resulting in accuracy up to 99.65%. The clavicle maximum length measurement provides the best univariate estimate of sex, while the radius provides the best multivariate estimated of sex. The results of this research highlight the need for population specific data in the creation of a biological profile, especially when working with individuals considered Hispanic. © 2012 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.