NCJ Number
206366
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2004 Pages: 446-450
Date Published
May 2004
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Measurements of the calcaneus have been shown to be sexually dimorphic in South African Whites; however, since the validity of discriminant function equations in sex determination is population specific, the current study derived similar equations for the calcanei of South African Blacks.
Abstract
The skeletal remains used in this study were obtained from the Raymond A. Dart Collection of Human Skeletons housed in the School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. In this collection, different tribes constitute the South African Black population. For the purpose of this study, these tribes were treated as a single homogenous group because previous works showed no significant differences in most of the metrical and nonmetrical characteristics of their skull and postcranial elements. Using the simple random sampling technique, the study selected 116 intact and nonpathological calcanei of 58 males and 58 females whose ages at death ranged between 22 and 75 years. Nine parameters were measured on the left calcanei. The reliability of the measuring technique was assessed by repeating all 9 measurements on 10 calcanei using the concordance correlation coefficients of reproducibility. Males presented with significantly greater mean values for all measurements than females, indicating the presence of significant sexual dimorphism in all measurements of the calcaneus; however, the level of accuracy obtained from the use of individual variables was not sufficient to make them useful in forensic cases. Since combinations of variables provide a higher level of accuracy, they should be used. The equations derived in the current study should be used with caution in cases when only the calcaneus is available for sex determination. 5 tables and 25 references