The digital atlas of skeletal maturity by Gilsanz and Ratib: a suitable alternative for age estimation of living individuals in criminal proceedings?

Abstract

As a collection of radiographic standards of the normal hand development with a homogenous degree of maturity of all skeletal elements, the digital atlas of skeletal maturity by Gilsanz and Ratib combines the possibilities of digital imaging with the principle of a conventional atlas method. The present paper analyses the forensic applicability of skeletal age assessment according to Gilsanz and Ratib to age estimation in criminal proceedings. For this, the hand X-rays of 180 children and adolescents aged 10-18 years old were examined retrospectively. For the entire age range, the minima and maxima, the mean values and standard deviations as well as the medians with upper and lower quartiles are specified by sex. For the legally relevant age groups from 14 to 18 years, there is a risk of overestimation of the chronological age of up to 7.2 months in females. The method of Gilsanz and Ratib is therefore only suitable to forensic age estimation in criminal proceedings to a limited extent.

Assessment of the radiographic visibility of the periodontal ligament in the lower third molars for the purpose of forensic age estimation in living individuals

“…Forensic age estimation in living adolescents and young adults is an established research field in forensic science [1,3,5,10,11]. The reason for the increasing importance of forensic age estimation in living individuals today is crossborder migration, which has led to an increasing number of non-nationals giving doubtful information about their date of birth.…”

Combining dental and skeletal evidence in age classification: Pilot study in a sample of Italian sub-adults

“…GP and TW3 were selected since GP is largely used in Italy and TW3 proved to be reliable for bone age estimation in Italian children [7], whilst other methods (Gisland and Ratib digital atlas, e.g.) are not used in Italy [19,20]. A forensic odontologist provided estimations of dental age based on teeth development 21] and 2,23].…”

Examination of ossification of the distal radial epiphysis using magnetic resonance imaging. New insights for age estimation in young footballers in FIFA tournaments

“…In their view, this is at present not a reliable method of determining skeletal age, as verification of exact age is impossible due to the considerable scatter range of the developmental processes [31]. This argument fails to recognise that the individual scatter ranges of the most common methods of determining hand skeleton age have meanwhile been identified [32][33][34][35][36][37]. As is usual in forensic age estimation practice, falsifications of statements of chronological age can be undertaken on the basis of the minimum and maximum ages specific to the individual methods.…”