Child brides: the age estimation problem in young girls

Authors

  • Luz Andrea Velandia Palacio University of Macerata
  • Roberto Cameriere AgEstimation Project, Macerata Italy
  • Marco Marchetti Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy
  • Francesca Baralla Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy
  • Mario Cingolani University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy
  • Luigi Ferrante Department of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy

Keywords:

Child brides, Dental age estimation, Forensic dentistry, Third molar maturity, Adult age, Forensic sciences

Abstract

 

The aim of this work is to study a sample of girls coming from 15 different countries and using third molar maturity index, to assess the probability that a girl has reached the legal age of 18 years old or not. The studied sample consisted of 3228 Orthopantomograms of healthy female subjects coming from 15 different countries. The cutoff value of third molar maturity index (I3M) = 0.08 was tested to discriminate adults (≥18 years) and minors (<18 years). X-ray images were processed by computer-aided drafting program ImageJ. The information on sensitivity and specificity of I3M coming from the 15 countries was combined and pooled together using a bivariate Bayesian modeling approach. Specificity of the I3M test does not change when country is considered, and its value remains greater than 85% for each considered country. The method is useful to determine the adult age of the girls involved in suspected early marriage both because of the high probability of correctly identify a minor and for the lack of difference observed in the results among nations.

 

 

Downloads

Published

2020-10-24

How to Cite

Velandia Palacio, L. A., Cameriere, R., Marchetti, M., Baralla, F., Cingolani, M., & Ferrante, L. (2020). Child brides: the age estimation problem in young girls. The Journal of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology - JFOS, 38(3), 2: 7. Retrieved from https://ojs.iofos.eu/index.php/Journal/article/view/1215

Issue

Section

Age Estimation