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Sex Estimation from Foot Dimensions in an Indigenous Indian Population
Author(s) -
Sen Jaydip,
Kanchan Tanuj,
Ghosh Shila
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01578.x
Subject(s) - foot (prosody) , demography , forensic anthropology , indigenous , estimation , west bengal , population , sexual dimorphism , body mass index , index (typography) , geography , medicine , biology , sociology , socioeconomics , ecology , engineering , zoology , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology , systems engineering , pathology , world wide web , computer science
Dismembered/severed human remains are frequently found in cases of mass disasters and criminal mutilation. Sex estimation from foot dimensions, therefore, has a vital role in establishing personal identity. There is a paucity of literature on this issue from various Indian populations. The “Rajbanshi” is one such indigenous population located in the state of West Bengal, India. The present study attempts to estimate sex from foot length, foot breadth, and foot index among 350 living adult Rajbanshi (175 men and 175 women) individuals (age range: 18–50 years). The study concludes that foot dimensions show significant sex differences. Both sectioning point and regression analyses can be used to estimate sex from foot dimensions. However, multiple regression models appear to have the maximum accuracy in sex differentiation. Although statistically significant sex differences are evident for foot index, its practical utility appears to be limited because of considerable overlap.