Height and gender prediction from foot size, shoe size and step length measurements collected by various methods (manual, with tool and camera support)

Objective: Person identification is important in forensic applications. In the case of events with or without death, determining height and gender of the person from the tracks and measurements at the crime scene is also part of the identification. In this study, it was aimed to develop formulas for estimating height and gender from arm length, knee height, length of shoe and footprints on hard surface. Material and Methods: 150 volunteers were included in the study. In addition to the demographic data of the participants, height, bilateral maximum foot and shoe length and width, step length, knee height, arm length, and shoulder width measurements were recorded in the data collection form. The data were evaluated using the SPSS statistical program. Correlation and regression analyzes were performed. Considering the scenarios that may be encountered in practice, height and gender estimation formulas were created with the existing measurements. Whether there was a significant difference between the means of the right and left side measurements was tested with the t-test. In addition, the prediction confidence was compared between the measurements made from the camera recording and the manual measurements of 70 participants whose video recordings were taken during the measurements. Results: 75 (50%) of the participants were female and 75 (50%) male, mean age was 26.3 years ±5.8. When the participants' places of birth and the longest living regions where their bone development is completed are evaluated, it is determined that the Aegean Region is the majority in both of them, and they wear the most shoes with size 38 for women and size 43 for men. As a result of the measurements, it was determined that we could predict the sex 100% correctly when we used all the data. Different models were assessed as appropriate for use, based on crime scene scenarios: • A shoe size and maximum right foot length measure based model if the footprints and shoes were found, • A left-arm length and maximum left-foot length based model if the body parts were found, • In the estimation of gender, it was evaluated that shoe size alone gave the highest rate (97.3%) and the average stride length gave the lowest rate (56.7%). Conclusion: In practice, for height estimation, it was considered appropriate to use only the measurements of the left foot when the measurements of both feet were present, as there was no significant difference between the measurements of the right and left sides. It was evaluated that only shoe size would be sufficient for gender estimation. Keywords: Forensic Anthropology, Foot, Shoe Measurements, Step Length, Knee Height, Arm Length, Camera Record, Height Prediction, Gender Prediction