Of all the identification methods in crimes, fingerprinting has one of the longest histories. Fingerprints, the friction ridge detail on the inside of the hands, are almost always unique and unchanging for a person’s entire life. It’s been an invaluable tool in forensics, solving many crimes and being used in evidence in countless trials, and is a well-known tool by laypeople, after being featured in CSI shows around the world. The ACE-V method used in Australia has particularly increased the accuracy of correct positive identification, preventing false positive identifications and reducing false negative identifications. But fingerprints are not simple, nor infallible. Subject to personal interpretation, and without a single universal …show more content…
Once this is established, scientists move to the comparison stage, observing the inked fingerprint and latent print from the crime scene side-by-side to determine details of the prints and the agreements or discrepancies between them; then evaluation, the assessment of the results of the analysis and comparison stages to determine a conclusion on the individualisation of the print, and finally: verification by an independent examiner by re-examining the prints and coming to the same conclusion (Lennard, 2012). The only conclusions are inclusion (meaning the evidence points to the fingerprints being caused by the same ridge skin), exclusion (the evidence does not support the fingerprints being caused by the same ridge skin), or inconclusive (insufficient detail to support either conclusion) (Lennard, 2012). Many countries around the world established numerical thresholds or matched friction ridge features to support a conclusion, which have since fallen out of favour in many countries including Australia, although many scientists continue to hold their own thresholds (Lennard, 2012; Robinson, 2011).
The use of the ACE-V method is a credit to the accuracy and reliability of fingerprinting as a forensic method. Research by Langenburg (2008) found a higher accuracy rate (100%) when the result was identification of a match, with a lower accuracy when the result was exclusion, with the verification process doubling the amount of
Nowadays, DNA is a crucial component of a crime scene investigation, used to both to identify perpetrators from crime scenes and to determine a suspect’s guilt or innocence (Butler, 2005). The method of constructing a distinctive “fingerprint” from an individual’s DNA was first described by Alec Jeffreys in 1985. He discovered regions of repetitions of nucleotides inherent in DNA strands that differed from person to person (now known as variable number of tandem repeats, or VNTRs), and developed a technique to adjust the length variation into a definitive identity marker (Butler, 2005). Since then, DNA fingerprinting has been refined to be an indispensible source of evidence, expanded into multiple methods befitting different types of DNA
crime scene could be analyzed and compared with a sample from a suspect. A match could place
Center, National Forensic Science Technology. (2015, January 27). Principles of Fingerprint Analysis. Retrieved from Forensic Science Simplified: http://www.forensicsciencesimplified.org/prints/principles.html
The first case of Brandon Mayfield describes a partial fingerprint found by authorities on the bag of detonators in the 2004 subway in Madrid, Spain detonations killing approximately 2,000 people. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for generations routinely testifies as fingerprints being “infallible” with no chance of being wrong. By the same token, backed by independent expert Kenneth Moses he confirms the FBI analysis was correct. Never the less, the Spanish Police identified another individual
The use of fingerprinting as a means of identification was born out of the need of law enforcement officials to have permanent records that could determine if a convict had been previously arrested or imprisoned. Before the advent of fingerprinting, law enforcement used a number of different methods to try to accomplish this. Ancient civilizations would tattoo or physically maim prisoners. In more recent times, daguerreotyping (that is, photographing) was used, but proved to be less than reliable, because people had the ability to dramatically alter their appearance (Skopitz). As a result, this method too, became obsolete with the discovery of fingerprinting, an absolutely infallible
samples of an individual’s fingerprint’s can be lifted from a crime scene. The breakthrough of
McDougall, Liam. “How much more evidence is needed for a public inquiry? SHIRLEY McKIE: US fingerprint expert: murder evidence fabricated, testimony perjured ; UK fingerprint expert: evidence more likely to be fabricated than incompetent: [Final Edition].” Sunday Herald [Glasgow, UK], 19 Feb. 2006. ProQuest Newsstand, search.proquest.com/news/docview/331281486/4DF56AD20C7C44EBPQ/12?accountid=15011. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.
Fingerprints can be taken from a crime scene in various methods. Fingerprints are classified into three categories depending on the surface they are found. Fingerprints on soft surfaces are most likely to be three-dimensional plastic prints such as soap, wax, wet paint, fresh caulk, etc. (“A Simplified Guide To Fingerprint Analysis”, n.d). The fingerprints on hard surfaces are patent or latent prints including blood, dirt, ink, paint, etc. transferred from a finger or thumb to a surface (“A Simplified Guide To Fingerprint Analysis”, n.d). Patent prints can be collected using photography. The prints are photographed in high resolution with a forensic measurement scale for the image for reference. There are multiple methods for discovering and collecting latent prints. Alternate Light Source (ALS) use
Law enforcement and the criminal justice system depend upon technology to carry out their many demands. Many programs are created to ensure the security and effectiveness of the criminal justice system while improving the technological capacities of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. Technology has impacted the communication capabilities of specialized databases in the criminal justice system in a substantial manner. The Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) and
DNA profiling technologies have had a considerable impact on how forensic science and criminal investigation have been understood, carried out, and regulated in the last 25 years. Current methods of forensic DNA profiling (known also as DNA fingerprinting and DNA typing), based on Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplifications of a varying number of Short Tandem Repeat (STR) loci found at different locations on the human genome, are regularly described as constituting the “gold standard for identification” in contemporary society. Prior to the implementation of PCR based extraction and amplification methods in the 1990’s, the initial uses of DNA fingerprinting (based on Multiple and Single Locus Probes) were largely confined to reactive
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)
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.
DNA fingerprinting is a scientific technology involving the extraction, replication and arrangement of strands of an organism’s DNA. This results in the formation of a genetically distinctive fingerprint that is unique to the organism which the DNA sample was originally extracted from. Because of the specificity of a DNA fingerprint, the application of this technology can have a substantial influence on many aspects of society. Accessibility to a DNA database allows for higher efficiency in forensic investigations, personal identification, maternal and paternal testing. The availability of a national database to police officers and forensic scientists would equate to increased productivity in investigations and prosecution of suspects in a