title: Improving Nonmetric Sex Classification for Hispanic Individuals.
abstract: Current techniques used by forensic anthropologists for the identification of unknown human skeletal remains have largely been created using U.S. Black and White samples. When applied to Hispanics, these techniques perform poorly and can lead to misclassifications; consequently, there is an imperative need for population-specific standards for Hispanics. This research examines the classification accuracies obtained by the original Walker (Am J Phys Anthropol, 136, 2008) and Klales et al. (Am J Phys Anthropol, 149, 2012) methods for nonmetric sex estimation and provides recalibrated regression equations specifically for Hispanics. Ordinal data were collected for five skull and three pelvic traits from a sample of 54 modern Hispanic individuals. Recalibration of the Klales et al. equation improved accuracy (90.3% vs. 94.1%), while recalibration of the Walker method equation decreased accuracy (81.5% vs. 74.1%), but greatly improved sex bias (22.2% vs. -7.4%), thereby making the recalibrated equations more appropriate for use with Hispanics.
authors.affiliation: Sociology & Anthropology, Washburn University, 1700 SW College Ave, Topeka, KS, 66621.
authors.forename: Alexandra R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Klales
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Forensic Sciences, Mercyhurst University, 501 East 38th Street, Erie, PA, 16546.
authors.forename: Stephanie J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Cole
mesh_terms: D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology / Q000379:methods*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States
keywords: Hispanics; border crossers; forensic anthropology; forensic science; nonmetric traits; pelvis; sex estimation; skull