Credibility of Various Indices of Sacrum in Identification of Sex of Sacrum

Abstract

Background : Determination of sex from skeletal remains is of paramount importance for Forensic Experts for identification of the deceased. The task becomes more difficult when only a single bone is available. Though most bones exhibit clear cut sexual variation in morphology but to determine sex with 100% accuracy, one has to use metric measurements to study various indices. These indices exhibit significant variation in range according ethnicity & geographic location, hence is suggested to arrive at Demarking Point (D.P.) for these parameters which greatly help in sexing of a bone. Sacrum has been considered amongst ideal bones to determine sex of individual because of its functional morphological variation in both sexes by virtue of its contribution to pelvis. Numerous indices have been reported to determine sex of sacra but of it none have proved to effectively & singularly differentiate sex. Hence is advised to not rely on a single index but use maximum possible indices to determine sex of sacrum. Also to be taken in consideration is fact that values of these indices so is their D.P. varies according to geographical location. Hence studies such as this are carried out to calculate anthrometric data regarding various measurements & indices for a particular region. Method: 150 sacra of known sex from Tamil Nadu of South India were studied for metrical parameters for determination of sex. Efforts were made to find Demarking point for each parameter and then compared with similar studies. Results: It was evident from present study that sacral index is the most important parameter as far as the sex determination of sacrum is concerned as it could singularly identify 56% male and 78% female bones. Sacral index for population under study was observed to be 99.21 for males and 119.94 for females. Conclusion: The present study highlight importance of certain parameters like sacral index while also demonstrating insignificance other parameters, but basic fact remains that as far as the sex determination of sacrum is concerned no single parameter could identify sex in 100% of the bones and hence, it can be concluded that for sex determination of the sacrum with 100% accuracy is possible only when maximum number of parameters are taken into consideration.