Fingerprint Investigation And Clay Seals Essay

“Forensic science has become in the early 21st century what the space race was in the 1960s- an accessible and inspiring (Gaensslen) into the world of science” (Gaensslen ix). This may be true but forensic has not always existed forever. Many people began hearing about forensic science during the 1990s when many of crime shows became popular. In actuality forensic science goes as far back as ancient China. Sculptors used fingerprints to identify their artwork from that of others. This may not be what forensics has evolved into but it had to begin somewhere. The first text reference of forensics first showed up in Hsi Duan Yu, which was published in about 700 CE (Hunter 18). It noted that many bodies have various characteristics that make them different. Many of the early forensic advances took place in the 1700 and 1800s. In 1784 the physical matching of evidence began. It was first used in the case of John Toms to link him and a piece of pistol wadding to a murder (Lotter). From then on forensics began to grow exponentially. “A major landmark in forensic science, the discovery that

The flexibility of a ridge means that no two people have the same fingerprint. According to Maceo (2011), the morphology of friction ridge skin is a mere reflection of its functions. She states that ridges and sweat pores allow the hands to grasp things while the creases allow the skin to be flexible (Maceo, 2011).

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

The next significant advancement in fingerprinting was achieved by an Englishman, Dr. Henry Faulds, who created a fingerprint classification method and suggested using printers’ ink to obtain quality fingerprints (The History of Fingerprints). Perhaps the most important advancement in fingerprinting came in 1892, when a British Anthropologist, Sir Francis Galton, published the book Fingerprints. For a while it had been thought that no two fingerprints were identical. However, Galton became the first to scientifically prove this, as well as the fact that fingerprints remain unchanged throughout a person’s life (The History of Fingerprints). It was these two facts that made fingerprinting the preferred method of identification.

samples of an individual’s fingerprint’s can be lifted from a crime scene. The breakthrough of

Splish, splash! Seals majestically swimming about the ocean blue. There are many astonishing facts about seals that most people don't know. The origin of seals is surprising. Scientists believe seals may have evolved from land. Seals may have been on land for more than fifteen million years. They believe that seals appendages changed to flippers so they wouldn't become extinct when more water arose. By research, scientists have found that seals DNA is closely related to their early land ancestors. A newfound fossil, now named the Puijila darwini, may be the long sought missing link in the evolution of pinnipeds (seals). The fossil has been found in the Canadian Arctic and has been found to be over twenty million years old. The fossil had four

Fingerprint comparison has always interested me because of the uniqueness in friction ridge detail. As a fingerprint expert, you learn that there are no two individual in the world that have the same fingerprints. Individuals can share the same DNA but their fingerprints will always be different. Examiners may be able to find two fingerprints that have many of the same characteristics, but not exactly the same as in the case of the Madrid bombing. The basics of fingerprint comparison will always be the same. However, it fascinates me how procedures change, and make fingerprint comparison more of a science.

Fingerprints are impressions left by ridges that press against things and leave a mark. They’re formed in the basal layer of skin while in the womb. The three fundamental principles of fingerprints are: no two fingerprints are the same, a fingerprint will remain the same for a lifetime, and there are general ridge patterns found in fingerprints that allow them to be systematically classified. Arches, whorls, and loops are the three basic fingerprint patterns. There also four subgroups which are plain, central pocket, double/double loop, and accidental. A minutiae, or ridge characteristic, are characteristics within a fingerprint that must make up for identification. Some examples of individual ridge characteristics would be bifurcation, short ridge, dot, etc. With the use of fingerprints, many individuals have been identified in criminal investigations.

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

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

The final main biometric technology used is fingerprint recognition. This is definitely the most widely used biometric technology. This type of biometric has been used for many, many years. Because of this, fingerprint recognition has been known as the most primary and accurate identification method used to identify a person. The modern fingerprint recognition is all done electronically. There are two main ways of analyzing fingerprints electronically. The first plots points on the ridges of a person’s fingers that enable the computer to compare to different fingerprints. The second method uses patterns of a fingerprint

“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.

According to Jain Anil, fingerprint-based identification is the oldest method which has been successfully used in numerous applications and though Bertillon’s anthropometry raised many valid points in forensic science, it was discarded and replaced by the fingerprint identification method after Bertillon’s death 1914.

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.