[Human gender determination based on the measurements of handprints that are devoid of dermatoglyphic features]

Gender determination through the use of handprints that are devoid of dermatoglyphic features is associated with either a visual assessment of the shape of the palms and phalanges, or with a comparison of their size with the size of the hands of people of the opposite sex.

To prove the possibility of gender determination from handprints without papillary ridge features by means of discriminant analysis of their dimensional characteristics, and to compare discriminant models with the results of visual sex classification and data of other authors.

The handprints of 162 adult subjects (68 males and 94 females), were examined using metrics that are usually not measured on the human body, such as the length of the hand without the distal phalanx of the third finger, the length of the hand from the center of the palm, the width of the ulnar part of the palm, the diagonal width of the palm, and the length of the first beam. The table editor Excel 2003 and statistical software package SPSS 14.0 for Windows have been used to carry out the statistical processing of the material. We used a multidimensional discriminant analysis by Fisher's method in a step-by-step version.

All the proposed measurements of the handprint meet the reliability requirements (rTEM5%; R>0.950). The accuracy of discriminant functions varies from 80 to 90.6%, which is noticeably higher compared to the visual definition (62.0-68.0%). Verification of the models (6 cases out of 8) proved the possibility of significant improvement of human gender determination when using the calculation method, compared with the visual method. The high data content of the additional planimetric parameters suggests the suitability of the gender determination models at different degrees of fragmentation of handprints. A necessary condition for the measurements on the handprint is the absence of any visible distortion of its proportions. The results of the gender analysis when measuring a handprint are comparable with the data obtained from skeletal material, from the hand itself and from its dermatoglyphic prints.

this study may prove useful in determining human gender through measurements of handprints that are devoid of dermatoglyphic features during a forensic investigation.