Sex Estimation in Forensic Anthropology: Taking a Legally-Informed Approach to Method Development

法医人类学中的性别估计：采用法律知情的方法开发方法

• 批准号: 2214747
• 负责人: Kate Lesciotto
• 金额: $ 30.31万
• 依托单位: University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-15 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2214747&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Sex; Estimation; Forensic; Anthropology; Taking

The goal of forensic anthropology is to assist in medicolegal investigations, typically involving decomposed or skeletal remains. When the remains belong to an unidentified decedent, the first step is to construct a “biological profile,” in which the estimation of sex is a crucial component. Accuracy in sex estimation increases when both metric (e.g., the length of a bone) and morphological (e.g., the shape of a bone) data are used and when multiple skeletal elements are assessed. There are currently no methods for sex estimation that meet both of these criteria. Forensic anthropologists are often called upon to testify in legal proceedings and provide expert evidence; however, the field of forensic anthropology lacks an assessment of how sex estimation methods have been evaluated when the admissibility of such evidence is challenged, resulting in little guidance on which methods forensic anthropologists should use and how to develop improved methods. There are currently 13,885 individuals listed as “unidentified” in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, including 796 individuals for whom sex is listed as “unsure.” This research will produce a new method for sex estimation that meets legal admissibility standards and additionally can accommodate the wide range of remains that are recovered (e.g., only a skull versus a complete skeleton), with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of unidentified bodies in the United States.This project will combine metric and morphological data from multiple skeletal elements into a single prediction model that will satisfy key legal considerations during evidentiary challenges, while improving accuracy and reliability. A framework for method development will be created that incorporates (1) legal perspectives on the admissibility of expert witness evidence and (2) forensic anthropology perspectives on methods of sex estimation to reduce barriers for adopting a new method. Using this framework, skeletal data will be collected and integrated into a prediction model, using the novel Mixed Cumulative Probit algorithm, and will be disseminated as a free, open-access web-based graphical user interface available to all forensic anthropologists. This innovative approach will result in a single, statistically valid sex estimation method that can accommodate both continuous and ordinal data, conditional dependence, heteroskedasticity, and missing data and therefore be used in the vast majority of forensic anthropology casework. By using legal admissibility criteria as guidelines, the resulting model will also be robust to evidentiary challenges.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

法医人类学的目标是协助法医学调查，通常涉及腐烂或骨骼遗骸。当遗骸属于身份不明的死者时，第一步是构建“生物学档案”，其中性别估计是关键组成部分。当同时使用度量（例如，骨骼的长度）和形态（例如，骨骼的形状）数据并且使用多个骨骼元素时，性别估计的准确性会提高目前还没有满足这两个标准的性别估计方法，法医人类学家经常被要求在法律诉讼中作证并提供专家证据；然而，法医人类学领域缺乏对性别估计方法的评估。当此类证据的可接受性受到质疑时，就会进行评估，导致法医人类学家应该使用哪些方法以及如何开发改进方法方面缺乏指导。 目前，全国失踪和身份不明人员名单中共有 13,885 人被列为“身份不明”。系统，包括 796 名性别被列为“不确定”的人。这项研究将产生一种新的性别估计方法，该方法符合法律受理标准，并且还可以容纳已发现的各种遗骸（例如，仅头骨与遗骸）。完整的骨架），最终目标是减少美国不明身份尸体的数量。该项目将把多个骨骼元素的度量和形态数据结合到一个预测模型中，该模型将满足证据挑战期间的关键法律考虑，同时将创建一个方法开发框架，其中纳入（1）专家证人证据可采性的法律观点和（2）性别估计方法的法医人类学观点，以减少采用新方法的障碍。在框架中，将使用新颖的混合累积概率算法收集骨骼数据并将其集成到预测模型中，并将作为免费、开放访问的基于网络的图形用户界面向所有法医人类学家提供这种创新方法。在一种单一的、特别有效的性别估计方法，可以适应连续数据和有序数据、条件依赖性、异方差性和缺失数据，因此可用于绝大多数法医人类学案例工作。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。