Testing the validity of the DSP2 sex assessment method on two European populations

Van Melle, C, Stover, H ORCID: 0009-0008-6702-0969, Grabowski, M ORCID: 0000-0001-7045-9472, Borrini, M ORCID: 0000-0003-3863-4992 and Eliopoulos, C ORCID: 0000-0002-5285-6770 (2026) Testing the validity of the DSP2 sex assessment method on two European populations. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 122. p. 103229. ISSN 1752-928X

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Abstract

Sex estimation from human skeletal remains can be achieved using a diverse range of skeletal elements, methodologies, and statistical approaches. While population specificity presents a challenge for most metric sex assessment methods, the os coxae seems to bypass this issue due to its universal pattern of sexual dimorphism. The DSP2 (Diagnose Sexuelle Probabiliste, version 2) is a non-population-specific metric sex estimation method that employs a combination of at least four of ten measurements of the os coxae to estimate sex probabilistically. Despite the method being based on a worldwide meta-database, many populations remain unrepresented. The present study aims to test the DSP2 method on two previously untested European populations. A sample of 51 modern Italian os coxae and a sample of 53 British historical os coxae were used. The validity of the DSP2 method was evaluated through the sexing rate (88.24% for the Italian sample and 86.79% for the British sample) and sexing accuracy (ranging from 95.83% to 100%). The sex estimates were obtained by DSP2 with a 0.95 posterior probability threshold. Intra- and inter-observer error analyses revealed close to excellent reliability for most measurements (with the depth of the great sciatic notch being the only exception). The results of this study support the use of DSP2 on populations not represented in the original datasets, including modern Italian and historical British populations.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	DSP2; Forensic anthropology; Metric sex assessment; Os coxae; Osteometry; Sex estimation; 4301 Archaeology; 4401 Anthropology; 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology; 44 Human Society; Bioengineering; Humans; Sex Determination by Skeleton; Male; Forensic Anthropology; Female; Reproducibility of Results; Italy; Pelvic Bones; United Kingdom; 1103 Clinical Sciences; Legal & Forensic Medicine; 3199 Other biological sciences; 3499 Other chemical sciences
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > C Auxiliary sciences of history (General) Q Science > QH Natural history Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology
Divisions:	Biological and Environmental Sciences (from Sep 19)
Publisher:	Elsevier BV
Date of acceptance:	3 August 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	10 September 2026
Date Deposited:	09 Sep 2026 08:29
Last Modified:	10 Sep 2026 00:50
DOI or ID number:	10.1016/j.jflm.2026.103229
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29329

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