Sm. Duray et al., Morphological variation in cervical spinous processes: Potential applications in the forensic identification of race from the skeleton, J FOREN SCI, 44(5), 1999, pp. 937-944
Determination of race (ancestry) is an important step in the identification
of individuals in forensic cases. Race is most commonly assessed using cra
nial traits. Few reliable postcranial indicators are known. in this study,
the frequency of bifidity of cervical spinous processes at different verteb
ral levels was examined in a sample of 359 Americans of African (black) and
European (white) descent. The sample was selected from the Hamann-Todd col
lection, a large modem anatomical collection of known sex and race. Spinous
processes were classified as "bifid," "partially bifid," or "nonbifid" bas
ed on previously defined criteria. Sex and race were kept entirely unknown
to the classifier (S.M.D.) during data collection. Data were analyzed using
Chi-square and logistic regression analysis. At C2, most individuals (91%)
had bifid spinous processes, At C7, nearly all (98%) had nonbifid spinous
processes. Significant differences between race/sex subgroups were found at
C3-C6, At each of these levels, whites showed a higher frequency of bifidi
ty than blacks and males a higher frequency of bifidity than females. Diffe
rences between races were greater than differences within races. Logistic r
egression analysis revealed C3 and C4 to be the most useful levels for iden
tifying race. Based on these levels, 76.05% of a validation subsample was c
orrectly classified by race (80.25% for whites, 72.09% for blacks). Pending
further study, morphology of the cervical spinous processes may provide an
additional method for the determination of race in skeletal forensic cases
.