ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 May 2003
Page Count: 4

Discriminant Function Sexing of Fragmentary and Complete Femora: Standards for Contemporary Croatia
(Received 31 December 2002; accepted 30 December 2002)

Abstract

Determining sex is one of the first and most important steps in identifying decomposed corpses or skeletal remains. Previous studies have demonstrated that populations differ from each other in size and proportion and that these differences can affect metric assessment of sex. This paper establishes standards for determining sex from fragmentary and complete femurs in a modern Croatian population. The sample is composed of 195 femora (104 male and 91 female) from positively identified victims of the 1991 War in Croatia. Six discriminant functions were generated, one using seven variables, three using two variables, and two employing one variable. Results show that complete femora can be sexed with 94.4% accuracy. The same overall accuracy, with slight differences in male/female accuracy, was achieved using a combination of two variables defining the epiphyses, and with the variable maximum diameter of the femoral head.

Keywords:
forensic science, forensic anthropology, physical anthropology, sex determination, discriminant functions, femur, positive identification, Croatia

Paper ID: JFS2002159
DOI: 10.1520/JFS2002159
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