Abstract: Objective To develop medicolegal expertise standard to assess skeletal age of Chinese male adolescents by joint X-ray.Methods Radiographs of male adolescent aged 11 to 20 years were obtained in Southern,Central,and Eastern China.The bone development process were graded according to morphology characteristics in radiograph based on the appearance of secondary ossification centers and the arrest of epiphysises.All statistical analysis was carried out with SPSS and SAS.Results Most indexes were correlated to age.Optimization multiple regression equation was created to estimate age of adolescent.Discriminatory equations were established to distinguish the age of 14,16 or 18 years.Conclusion More anatomical site evaluation and more index application can improve the accuracy rate.The methods can be used in age determination by skeleton in Chinese male adolescents.

Key words: forensic anthropology, age determination by skeleton, regression analysis, discriminant analysis, adolescent