Determining the Sex of Skeletal Remains: Analytical Essay

There are many ways to identify human skeletal remains and create a biological profile. One of the ways of creating a biological profile is to determine the sex of the skeletal remains. To identify the sex of the skeletal remains can be done by using several different bones in the skeleton. The most common used bones are the pelvis and various parts of the skull. There are two types of methods used when using bones to identify remains these are

Morphological method and Metric methods.

The morphological methods use the descriptive traits of the bone and metric methods look at the quantitive elements o of the bone such as the measurements. (Lesciotto and Doershuk, 2018) Metric methods uses a wide variety of bones which can be used 34 bones located in the skull and 43 postcranial. Anthologists can use a computer programme known as FORDISC. Which is used to identify ancestry, sex and stature of skeletal remains. An advantage of this is that the programme can identify more than one more than one piece of biological profile. A disadvantage of this is that the accuracy of FORDISC ranges between 52.2% and 77.8%. (Guyomarc’h and Bruzek, 2011) The advantages of using metric methods is that The disadvantages of the metric method is that the method is dependent on size and shapes of the bones. The size and the shapes of the bones can be various between different populations. Siep and Henneberg (2015) believed that “the skeletal size differs considerably across populations and the use of inappropriate discriminate functions can result in misinterpretations of sex” Morphological methods are methods which use the look of the bones to identify the sex of skeletal remains. This is the most common way which anthropologists use to identify the sex of the remains.

The Advantages of using morphological methods is that methods such as Klales revised method on the Phlenice method can be modified and applied to juveniles to estimate the sex following the onset of puberty. (Klales and Burns, 2017) The disadvantages of using morphological methods on the pelvis to identify the sex of the skeletal remains is that Bruzek and Murail (2006) state that “ …the level of reliability needs to be higher in the legal context then those presented in current sexing methods (85%) A minimum threshold of 95% is required…morphological sexual differences on the skeleton is not enough to elaborate a method of sexing. No single trait of the human skeleton enables a reliable sex determination.” (pp 225).

The methods are only highly accurate after the onset of puberty. The skull can be used to determine the sex of the skeletal remains. It can be used as there is many differences features between a female and male skull. When the morphological methods are used on the skull it focus on the key differences between female and male skulls. These differences are known as sexual dimorphism. For a female the skull is small and is smooth and round. It has a small non projecting mastoid. A small brow ridge and high rounded frontal lobe. The Nuchal Area with a small with an uncommon hook. The Supraorbital margin is sharp, and the chin is also sharp. While the male skull is larger and rugged with a large projecting Mastoid and large brow ridges. The frontal lobe is slanted, and the Nuchal Area is rugged with a hook and the supraorbital Margin is rounded and the chin is broader. (White and Folkens, 2005)

There are many advantages to using the skull to determine the sex of the skeletal remains as the skull offers a high resistance to adverse environmental conditions over time, resulting in the greater stability of the dimorphic features as compared to other skeletal bone pieces (Gangrade, Yadav and Jain, 2013) There are also many disadvantages of using the skull to determine the sex of the skeletal remains Spradley and Jantz (2011) stated that “the results clearly indicate that the most postcranial elements outperform the skull estimating sex. It is possible to correctly sex 88-90% of individuals with joint size, up to 94% with multivariate models of postcranial bones. The best parts of the cranium do not exceed 90%”. Another disadvantage is that race can confuse the sex for example Saukko and Knight (2004) states that the size of the supraorbital ridges in a normal Negroid woman is the same as a Caucasian male. Another bone which can be used is the pelvis of the skeletal remains which can also be used to determine the sex.

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There are many methods used to determine the sex of any skeletal remains. One of the methods used is known as the method of Phenice which was developed in 1969 by T. W Phenice. This method is a morphological method which uses three traits of the pelvis. These traits of the pelvis are the ventral arc, sub-pubic concavity, and the medial aspect of the ischiopubic ramus. (Phenice, 1969) An advantage of the method is that it has an accuracy range between 59% to 96%. (Bruzek, 2002) A disadvantage of this is that the ventral arc criterion does not include those who are aged thirty years plus. (Sutherland and Suchey, 1987) this is agreed by Lovell (1989) who states “the accuracy of the method appears to decrease when it is used on older individuals” The method of Iscan and Derrick (1984) which uses the posterior pelvis. The advantages of this method is that it has an accuracy level of 90% (Iscan and Derrick 1984) The method of Ferebach, Schwide and Stloukal (1980) which uses eleven traits of the pelvis. Duric, Rakocevi and Donic (2005) found that the Great Sciatic Notch was 79.15% accurate. The skull was 70.56%. The Mandible was 70.93% and the Supraorbital margins 28.75% all the results were less than the legal context separately, but they believed that experience is likely to contribute to the accuracy of sex determination.

The advantages of using the pelvis to identify the sex of the skeletal remains is that Debono and Mafart (2006) states “that the most reliable method of determining sex from the skeletal remains are based on examination of the hip bone.” (pp 167) The disadvantages of using the pelvis is that the pelvis may not be fully developed yet due to the remains age. Another disadvantage of using the pelvis bone is that it is important to use more then one aspect of the pelvis for an accurate reading as one aspect can contradict the other. (Saukko and Knight, 2004) Juvenile skeleton is the skeleton of a child aged from birth to eighteen years old during this age gap it is very hard to determine the sexual identification as the skeleton has not yet fully developed. Rissech and Malogsa (2004) state “the indemnification of sub adults (Juveniles) especially in the foetus and infant stage are not clear and further study is needed.” They do state further on in their paper that “The most useful varies for adults and subadults are the three variables of diameter of the ilium acetabular surface.” (pp 165)

The sexual identification of juvenile skeletal remains focuses on the morphological traits of the dentition, cranium, mandible and pelvis which receive an accuracy rating of 70% (Lewis and Rutty 2003) Molleson, Cruse and Mays (1998) “ scored discrete traits of the orbital and mandible in a sample of known sex adults and juvenile sex was accurate in 90% adults and 78% Juveniles. Many diseases can leave morphological overlapping on bones or effecting the metric method as the disease effects the length of the bones making sex determination harder some can even be mistaken for trauma to the bone which could be caused by some form of abuse. One of the diseases which effects the morphological identification of sex of the skeletal remains is scurvy. Scurvy is caused by the lack of vitamin C. the lack of vitamin C causes the bones to thin and causing pathological fractures in a child’s rapidly growing bones. These fractures can be misidentified as trauma from child abuse. (Maat 2004) Dwarfism or skeletal dysplasia is a disease which effects the bones growth as this disease stops or slows down the bone growth. (NHS, 2019)

This disease can affect the sexual identification of any skeletal remains which this condition as an anthropologist may not be aware of disease in the skeletal remains as the skeletal remains are unidentified there is no access to medical records. If the metric method was used the measurements gathered from the skeletal remains. The results would indicate that the skeletal remains were possibly that of a child and not of an adult. Rickets is another disease which affects the bones. Rickets is caused by a lack of vitamin D. The lack of vitamin D in bones causes soft bones and effect the growth and structure of the skeleton as the bones become weak and bends easily this weakness can be seen in the femurs as they become bent into an arch shape. Trauma is the name of any physical injury to the bone.

There are many types of trauma which are considered in forensics but not all of them can be identified from skeletal remains. The timing of trauma is also important as if the trauma had happened ante- mortem there would be medical records of the trauma which could be used to identify the skeletal remains. When enough force is applied to the bone causing it to break. It is referred to as a fracture. There are two types of fractures. The first is called a fracture, this occurs when the break travels completely though the bone. The second is called an infraction this is when a break is not complete. (White and Falkens, 2005) The speed of the force is also considered when fractures and infractures occur. The most common speed is dynamic, this is a sudden stress which is caused at high speed and is powerful. This type of stress can accrue after a fall. The second type is static, this stress is applied slowly until the bone breaks. Another type of break is a communited fracture this fracture occurs when the bone has broken into more than two fragments. This type of fracture can occur due to vehicle accidents. The direction of the force is also considered when dealing with skeletal remains as it can be used to identify the type of fracture if any are present. There are five directions of force. The first is tension which have few fraction lines. Then there is compression which is found mainly on the skull. Torsion which is found in the long bones and can show signs of child abuse. Bending which is common in violent deaths. It can also cause parry fractures which can be found on someone who has defended themselves against an attack. The final direction is shearing, this can be found in people whom have been involved in accidents. Skull fractures are fractures which are found in the skull,. The fracture dispenses outwards from the central area of impact. All the above fractures can have an impact on the ability to identify the skeletal remains sex as the fracture could impact on the bone growth, which would give anthologists using metric methods the wrong lengths and those morphological the bones may have bits missing.

There are many methods used to identify the sex of the skeletal remains none of which are 100% accurate on their own and for the best results a mixture of two or more bones should be used. The methods of morphological and metric it is up to is up the anthropologist to decide which method they feel more comfortable using. There are advantages and disadvantages on both types of methods and many researchers believe experience using the methods is the key to identify the sex of both adult and juvenile skeletal remains. There are still a few issues regarding identifying the juvenile skeleton which, many problems due to the bones still growing and developing so the metric measurements may be inaccurate. The bones most effected by growth are located in the skull and pelvis which would also make using morphological methods inaccurate. There is need for more research on the juvenile skeletal remains on identifying a biological method.