Sex identification on the basis of hand and foot measurements in Indo-Mauritian population – A model based approach

Abstract

Identification is the foremost issue in crime investigation. A few studies have been performed so far in order to identify sex on the basis of single foot or hand of the victim. Moreover, these studies provide only crude measures to indicate sex and there exists no concrete methodology to predict sex using the available information. In the present paper, we have developed statistical models to identify sex based on the dimensions of foot and hand. The models containing both length and breadth of hand or foot as independent variables are capable of predicting sex in Indo-Mauritian population with fairly high accuracy as compared to those containing hand or foot indices.