Does sexual dimorphism in facial soft tissue depths justify sex distinction in craniofacial identification?
Stephan, C.N.; Norris, R.M.; Henneberg, M.
Journal of Forensic Sciences 50(3): 513-518
2005
ISSN/ISBN: 0022-1198 PMID: 15932080 Document Number: 594108
Separation of male and female soft tissue depths into discrete groups for craniofacial identification implies that males and females differ enough from each other, with respect to this application, for this distinction to he useful. In this study, previously published soft tissue depth data were analyzed for sex separation. It was found that the variation within each sex was large while the variation between the sexes was small. Often the value of two standard deviations of the measurement for either sex was targer than the difference displayed between the means of each sex. Furthermore, opposite sex overlap in regions defined to be close to the male or female mean were found to be large and the amount of variance explained by sex was small (less than 6% on average). These results indicate that while male and female means at single cramofacial landmarks may differ slightly. and even at statistically significant levels, individual male and female soft tissue depths are often the same or very similar. On average, soft tissue depths of the face do display some sexual dimorphism but it is not marked and of little practical meaning for cramofacial identification where a single individual must be independently considered. Thus, there is little use in separate reporting of data for males and females and data should be combined to increase sample sizes.