NCJ Number
223385
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2008 Pages: 601-605
Date Published
May 2008
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This report presents data on femur length and head diameter, two standard skeletal measurements in estimating sex and stature, collected by anthropologists employed by the International Criminal Tribunal in their effort to identify victims from the war in the Balkans (Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia); additional data from Croatians and from American Whites were used for comparison in certain parts of the analysis.
Abstract
The primary conclusion from this analysis is that the populations of the former Yugoslavia require their own sexing and stature estimation criteria and that American criteria cannot be applied to them. The data show considerable variation in cranio-facial structure for residents of the region, and the limited data on femur measurement and stature show heterogeneity. Femur metrics and stature show Kosovans to be shorter and more robust than Croatians and Bosnians, and Bosnians are more robust than Croatians. Current evidence did not permit attributing the robusticity of Kosovans and Bosnians to any particular cause. Antemortem stature estimates were obtained from interviews with relatives. The authors argue that equations which predict height obtained from relatives are the most realistic in the current cases, because that is the height to which an estimate obtained from bone lengths will be compared. Kosovans were shown to have experienced slight increases in femur length over the past 70 years. Ethnic variation suggests that further population or ethnically specific criteria are required. Metric data were obtained by anthropologists working in Croatia (1996), Kosovo (2000), and Bosnia-Herzegovina (2001). The Croatian data consisted of males from the mass grave site in Ovcara, Croatia, exhumed in 1996. Several long bones were measured, but the femur was the only one from which data were systematically collected. Variables were maximum femur length and maximum head diameter. 6 tables, 4 figures, and 24 references