Cranial sex determination using metric observations

SEX DETERMINATION FROM CRANIUM USING METRIC OBSERVATIONS BY: HARNEET KAUR Sex determination occupies relatively a central position both in Forensic Anthropological research and the identification necessitated by medical jurisprudence or medico-legal experts. The reliability of sex determination depends on the completeness of the remains and the degree of sexual dimorphism inherent in the population but it is generally accepted that the two most sexually dimorphic elements of the skeleton are the pelvis and the skull. Many workers claim a sexing accuracy of 80% from the cranium alone, 90% from the skull and mandible and 98% from the pelvis. However it is unfortunate that, owing to its thin cover of compact bone and its ventral position in most burials, pelvis is also one of the parts of the skeleton that survive inhumation least well. Sexual dimorphism exhibited by the skull is mainly dependent on changes that occur in the male at puberty that reflect increased muscle attachment whereas the female skull tends to retain pedomorphic features. In the male, supra-orbital ridges, glabella, mastoid process, and the nuchal and malar areas become more prominent in contrast to the female where all these elements are smaller and the forehead remains vertical with more pronounced frontal bosses. In the female, the orbits are more rounded, have sharper margins and are relatively larger compared to the upper facial skeleton than in the male (Ferembach et al., 1980; Krogman and Iscan, 1986) There are generally two methods of determining sex from cranium, i.e., (a) Non-metrical method and (b) Metrical method.- Sexing of the skull has been performed using non-metric observations in most forensic laboratories around the world, despite the fact that some forensic scientists have made use of cranial measurements for discriminating sex of skull. Visual assessment of character traits is commonly used in determination of sex from the skull for two reasons. First, the.