Notes On Fingerprints And Fingerprints

In our current state, there are many classifications of fingerprints. A fingerprint is an individual characteristic because each finger has its own pattern. You will not find any fingers with the same pattern on them. During

When it comes to fingerprints, no two individuals are the same. This is just one of the many reasons to as why fingerprints are so important when it comes to evidence. In addition, fingerprints are used to assist in capturing the individual, who was at the crime scene when the crime was perpetrated. Fingerprints are found on surfaces due to the friction ridges that are on each one of our hands (Nolo, 2015). Sweat, body oils, and dirt are just a few of the things that

One of the most important purposes of physical evidence is to establish the identity of a suspect or victim. Some of the most valuable clues at a crime scene are fingerprints. "Processing a crime scene" is a long, tedious process that involves focused documentation of the conditions at the scene and the collection of any physical evidence that could possibly shed light on what happened and point to who did it.

Latent fingerprints found at crime sights or else developed in the laboratory are categorized by examiners as patent, latent, or plastic impressions1. The word latent means hidden or unseen. Latent prints are undetectable until brought out with a physical, chemical and fuming process. The physical developer is a means to detect fingerprints on dry and wet, including paper articles, clay-based products and adhesive tapes. Ninhydrin is one of the most widely used chemical reagents for enhancement of latent finger print impressions on porous substrates. Nonporous surfaces do not absorb. These surfaces repel moisture and often appear polished. They include glass, metal, plastics, lacquered or painted wood, and rubber. Superglue (cyanoacrylate) fuming is the best example for such non-porous substrate analysis.

Forensic dactyloscopy is the study of fingerprints. Visible prints may be left behind by substances that stick to the fingers such as dirt or blood. Latent fingerprints are traces of sweat, oil or other natural secretions on the skin and are not ordinarily visible. These can be made visible by dusting techniques when the surface is hard and by chemical techniques when the surface is porous. Fingerprints provide police with extremely strong physical evidence tying suspects to evidence or crime scenes. Today police in most countries use systems for matching prints found at crime scenes to suspects, called automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS), to search rapidly through millions of digitised fingerprint records. Fingerprints recognised

Latent fingerprint was excited with U.V light. This was done to see if the latent fingerprint shows fluorescence. Multiple photographs were taken with different settings, which included spectral filters, camera settings, and U.V light settings to find out if any fluorescence is displayed by the fingerprint residues and if so, to which extent it enhances the ridge characteristics of the fingerprint.

Center, National Forensic Science Technology. (2015, January 27). Principles of Fingerprint Analysis. Retrieved from Forensic Science Simplified: http://www.forensicsciencesimplified.org/prints/principles.html

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

Though Hershel, Faulds, Galton and others set the stage in methods to indicate fingerprints should have been used for identification there was still controversy around the science. With the advances of technology, we now have a better understanding of why fingerprints have only been identified to a single individual. They are unique and permanent. Embryology finds six weeks in utero formations of early notching for what will become fingers starts. By week seven, webbing of the finger is almost gone and volar pads start to form. During week ten through twelve, initial formation of epidermal ridges begin. Primary ridges begin at the apex of the volar pads, tip of the finger and just above the first joint. Secondary ridges start to form by week sixteen and stop the formation of primary ridges. By twenty-four weeks ridge formation has completely finished. For over one hundred years friction ridge impressions have been only known to relate back to only one source thus resulting its broad usage in law enforcement, banking, government buildings for identification purposes and etc.

Each individual gave five right thumb prints. Another advantage of this experimental design was that these fingerprints were not collected on the same day, even for the same individual. The purpose of this was to show that amino acids within a person can vary marginally day to day, but there is a noticeable difference between men and women. Also, the prints were deposited on the exact same surfaces which ensures a controlled environment. This would allow for more accurate testing without the presence of unwanted variables. The surfaces included a door knob, a desk, a chair, a bench, and a computer. All fingerprints were removed with polyethylene film.

“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)

There are different types of patterns for fingerprints, there are Arches, Loops, and Whorls. An Arch is found in five percent of fingerprints encountered. There are two types of Arches a Plain Arch, and a Tented Arch. Therefore they are the rarest. Loops are found in sixty to seventy percent of fingerprints encountered. Therefore they are the most common. Whorls are found in twenty five to thirty five percent of fingerprints encountered. There are four types of fingerprints, the Plain Whorl, Central Pocket Whorl, Double Loop Whorl, and the Accidental Whorl.

Finger-marks are known as a small print that can be left on any surface, each finger-mark is unique to an individual. There are multiple types of finger-marks the three main ones are known as a Whorl, Arch and Loops. The finger-marks are always photographed before being collected at a crime scene, there are several different types of techniques that are used to be able to lift the prints. There are hinge lifts, rubber lifts and cellophane tape.

Fingerprints, known for each person to have unique ones, are made of a series of ridges and furrows on the

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.