Three Major Classes of Fingerprints Essay

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

In quadrants 1 and 2 how the amount and constituents of the fingerprint residue on the substrate affects the fingerprint image, is determined. In quadrant 1, excess sebum and moisture is first removed from the finger tips with the help of a clean cloth. In quadrant 2, fingertip is first wiped around the nose or forehead to create excess sebum. Quadrant 3 and 4 were used to compare the details between untreated and dusted fingerprint residues.

Explain the principles and processes used in the analysis, comparison, evaluation, and verification of latent fingerprints. Latent prints are formed when the body’s natural oils and sweat on the skin are deposited onto another surface. Latent prints can be found on a variety of surface they are not readily visible and detection often requires the use of fingerprint powders, chemical reagents or alternate light sources. Generally speaking, the smoother and less porous a surface is, the greater the potential that any latent prints present can be found and developed. Investigators often perform cyanoacrylate processing, or fuming, of a surface before applying powders or dye stains. This process, typically performed on non-porous surfaces, involves exposing the object to cyanoacrylate vapors. The vapors will adhere to any prints present on the object allowing them to be viewed with oblique ambient light or a white light source. (Latent, n.d)

After Galton’s discovery, the use of fingerprinting by law enforcement was inevitable. In 1892, an Argentine police official, Juan Vucetich, became the first person to identify a criminal through fingerprints (The History of Fingerprints). The last major step necessary for the widespread use of fingerprint identification was to create a classification system that simplified the process of matching fingerprints. That came in 1901, when Edward Henry devised a system that separated fingerprints into four different categories - loops, whorls, arches, and composites (Skopitz). Shortly after its development, most European nations implemented this system of

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

Exercise 2 Latent Print Development Introduction The purpose of this lab was to introduce the method of latent print development using fingerprint dusting powders and practice those techniques. When latent fingerprints are found at a crime scene, they are developed and documented by a crime scene technician and analyzed by a trained latent fingerprint examiner. Fingerprints can be classified into three general patterns: loops, whorls, and arches. Fingerprints are patterns of friction skin ridges which consist of veins, capillaries, and sweat glands.

1. Which of the three types of fingerprints was the fingerprint that you examined (loop, arch, or whorl)? Within that print, what minutiae did you see?

Latent print identification is of critical importance to law enforcement agencies in forensics application. Latent Print Examiners are responsible for performing complex latent print detection and comparisons requiring high skill level.

The main provision in all cases is the avoidance of including fingerprints to evidence, or of ruining the ones already existing at the time. Once the crime scene has been carefully recorded and each of the evidence located have been annotated, then the process of gathering and analyzing can commence. The crime scene investigator will start by collecting the most delicate and easily prone to be lost evidence. Locating latent fingerprints at the crime scene requires use of techniques that makes it ideal for visibility. Investigators will use a several of methods to visualize the print, however it will depend on the surface that print is being lifted from. All non-movable and fixed items at a crime scene sustained to be handled on the scene using one of

A Fingerprint is a pattern of fine ridges and valleys (spaces between ridges) on the surface of a finger and fingerprint sensor makes a digitized image of it. The sensing resolution is 500ppi (pixel per inch; also known as 500dpi, i.e., dots per inch) in most cases, which is equivalent to 20 pixels in 1 millimeter. The obtained image size is typically in the range of between 300*300 and 512*512 pixels, which makes the area covering the fingerprint between 15 to 25 millimeters square.

FINGERPRINT EXPERIMENT2AbstractLatent print residue is a combination of many substances excreted from the body. Latent print residues may be left from natural sweat on the skin or from a contaminant such as motor oil, blood, ink, paint or some other form of dirt. They may exhibit only a small portion of the surface of a finger and may be smudged, distorted, overlapped by other prints from the same, or from different individuals, or all of these in combination. The factors that affect the quality or presenceof latent prints include the conditions involved between friction skin contact and the objects that are touched. Pre-transfer conditions describe the condition of the friction skin and the amount and type of residue on the skin; and are affected

Sir Francis Galton, London Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, created his own system of fingerprint cataloguing. He assigned a number to each finger and based on the flow, direction, pattern, and other characteristics to narrow down candidates for a match. (“Forensic Science History”) Sir Galton fingerprint techniques have been used worldwide, however, with innovative and dramatized methods from other specialists, it made hard to prove which process would be reasonable and practical.

“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.

Fingerprint patterns are classified into three main categories: loops, whorls, and arches. Loops make up sixty percent of the prints that are left behind, and their patterns trace back onto themselves, pointing either towards the thumb or the pinky. Whorls make up thirty-five percent of prints left behind, and they are circular in nature. These have many classifications and patterns: they can be concentric circles, or plain whorls; they can be loops with whorls at