A Short History of Fingerprinting Essay

scientific law enforcement in his creation of a mass fingerprint file in 1926 and the

For over a century fingerprints have been one of the most used tools of forensic science. Fingerprints have been used to identify criminals of small crimes

Fingerprints have been used as a biometric measure for more than a century. It is one of the most well known and highly publicized techniques used to identify suspects in a crime. The fingerprint techniques identification has advanced from ink pads and paper to electronic recognition. Most techniques have become a wide accepted and reliable forms of biometrics. With the advancement in computer technology and chemical reagents, a fingerprint can be obtained from a burned corpse or a decomposed body. In the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s case, the fingerprint from gathered from the crime scene could only be verified by the ridges characteristic pattern of the finger. In the 1960's, The National Crime Information Center was a computerized filing

DNA fingerprinting was discovered by Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys from the University of Leicster. After spending time studying molecular biology in Amsterdam with Dick Flavell, Jeffreys moved to the university and set out to “marry the new

Bertillonage was a process of recording criminal’s body measurements to keep on file with photographs and other detailed information. This became vastly popular until fingerprinting was recognized as a more effective method. Once this was discovered he incorporated fingerprints for only the right hand in his processing. One obstacle that proved to be a problem with Bertillonage

The introduction of the modern use of fingerprinting all started in 1984, when a British geneticist named Alec Jeffreys came across new methods for DNA fingerprinting (Jones, 2012). Since his discovery, this technique has been used successfully to identify perpetrators of crimes. For more than a century in fact, fingerprints have been used as identification tools by law enforcement. Known as “friction ridge analysis,” (Jones, 2012), this forensic method comprises of examiners comparing details of an unknown print against known prints. These details are analyzed

All over the world and as far as many people can remember, fingerprints have been used as a symbol of truth and justice in the forensics domain. The art of fingerprinting has been seen as a closure to many major crimes that have put many people in prison. However, in his article “Do Fingerprints Lie?” Michael Specter examines that fingerprinting has given rise to many questions as of the late 20th century. Fingerprints have been taken for granted, almost like money, which in this century, people believe is the best item to be handed to us. People tend to take what they hear, and just go with it without research or background knowledge. This practice has not been challenged as many concepts should. Specter brings in a solid argument with a lot of knowledge to support his claims and factual evidence to set his article with high credibility. While Specter builds a strong argument, he fails to consider how fingerprints have improved the forensic process.

From the early days, with little literary reference material, to the current day, with substantially more, but still insufficient formation, the science of fingerprint identification has managed to maintain its credibility and usefulness. Although, academic institutions have yet to recognize the field as an applied science and include it in the curricula, which would provide directed research and literary reference, in libraries. Without this academic recognition, progress in the field of fingerprint is destined to be sluggish. Description of fingerprint identification as a forensic science’ or an ~app1ied science’ in no way implies that is not a reliable science.

The automated Fingerprint Identification System is also known as the AFIS within the law enforcement division (FBI, 2010). This system is an important element in the criminal justice system as some of its features encompass the storing of data, encoding, and fingerprint and facial comparison through graphics and other techniques. Law officials many centuries ago in the pursuit of positively identifying someone suspected of guilt have long used fingerprints techniques. Fingerprinting is also used in branches of our government, and in the Pentagon, the authentication method of fingerprints is used permit access to specified zones inside the building. Fingerprints are an effective and very precise method of identification purposes that does not pose

“Fingerprint recognition is one of the divorce inference using the impressions made by the minute ridge formations or patterns found on the fingertips. No two people have exactly the same arrangement of the ridge patterns, and the remaining patterns of any one individual unchanged. Fingerprints infallible provide a means of personal identification. Other personal characteristics may change, but not fingerprints”. (1)

Fingerprinting is used for many things, such as a robbery, or at a crime scene. Fingerprints were first discovered in 1870 by Alphonse Bertillon, who was a French anthropologist. In 1892, Juan Vucetich had made the first criminal report using a fingerprint. In 1905 America used fingerprints for identification. When America started using fingerprints for identification they had to match the fingerprints manually when needed. When technology was able to enter fingerprints, and match them with anonymous ones, it helped identification immensely.

Some experts believe that the science of recording fingerprints has existed for thousands of years, although it is only since the late 1800s that fingerprints were used in fighting crime ("How fingerprinting improves criminal investigations"). Fingerprints were taken using ink and paper, then stored with an individual's personal information. Although fingerprint records were used successfully, the system was time-consuming and cumbersome, often requiring weeks or months to process a single submission. In addition to the inability to process records expeditiously, there were opportunities for records to get misfiled or lost.

The purpose of collecting fingerprints is to identify an individual. This person may be the suspect, a victim, or a witness. There are three types of fingerprints that can be found: latent, patent, and plastic. (Crime Museum, 2016) Latent fingerprints are made of the sweat and oil on the skin’s surface. This type of fingerprint is invisible to the naked eye and requires additional processing in order to be seen. This processing can include basic powder techniques or the use of chemicals. Patent fingerprints can be made by blood, grease, ink, or dirt. This type of fingerprint is easily visible to the human eye. Plastic fingerprints are three-dimensional impressions and can be made by pressing your fingers in fresh paint,

Fingerprint classification was first introduced by Jan Evangelista Purkinje in 1823 as described in the article Clinics to Dermatology. Fingerprints have since been used in the forensic science world as an accepted tool in criminology and used for the identification of people. Fingerprints was built on the theory that all fingerprints are unique, no two are alike. Thus fingerprints are considered a type of individual evidence, evidence that can pinpoint a specific person Purkinje, a Czech physiologist, divided the lines found in a fingerprint into nine types, each based on their geometric arrangement. Every human being is said to have a different combination of shapes and lines thus making

Every time somebody touches something, they leave behind a unique signature that forever links them to that object. This link is their fingerprints, which are unique to every person, for no two people have the same set, not even family members or identical twins. Palms and toes also leave prints behind, but these are far less commonly found during crime scene investigations. Therefore, fingerprints provide an identification process that is applicable to background checks, biometric security, mass disaster identification, and most importantly, crime scene investigations. Fingerprints are so differentiated because they are made up of distinct patterns of ridges and furrows on the fingers. The ridges are the “raised” portions of the prints, and the furrows are the “recessed” portions. This perceived uniqueness has led some people to falsely accept fingerprint analysis as absolute scientific fact. Although overall fingerprints are reliable, there are definitely situations where their accuracy can come into question.