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Nonparametric Discriminant Analysis In Forensic Ancestry Estimation: An Assessment Of Utilized And Alternative Statistical Methods, David Anthony Mercer
Nonparametric Discriminant Analysis In Forensic Ancestry Estimation: An Assessment Of Utilized And Alternative Statistical Methods, David Anthony Mercer
Masters Theses
This thesis evaluates and compares the performances of four discriminant analysis techniques in forensic ancestry estimation using craniometric variables. Giles and Elliot (1962) were the first anthropologists to use discriminant analysis for ancestry estimation. They used Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) in an attempt to predict American White, American Black, and American Indian ancestry from craniometric variables. LDA has since been the dominant discriminant technique used for this purpose. It is the method that is exclusively used in FORDISC (Ousley and Jantz, 2005) and, until recently, was the only method applied to forensic craniometric ancestry estimation.
LDA, however, assumes the data …