Fingerprint Comparison Guide

Friction Ridges

Friction ridges do not run evenly and unbroken across our fingers, hands, toes and feet.
Rather, they display a number of characteristics known as minutiae. The principle
categories of minutiae are as follows:

• ridge ending - a ridge that ends abruptly;

• bifurcation - a single ridge that divides into two ridges;
• lake or enclosure - a single ridge that bifurcates and reunites shortly afterwards to
continue as a single ridge;
• short ridge, island or independent ridge - a ridge that commences, travels a short
distance and then ends;
• dot - an independent ridge with approximately equal length and width;
• spur - a bifurcation with a short ridge branching off a longer ridge; and
• crossover or bridge - a short ridge that runs between two parallel ridges.

Points of Identification

Human skin is elastic, and no two impressions of the same fingerprint will be exactly
identical. Therefore, there is little value in measuring the angle formed by a bifurcation or
the precise distance between two particular minutiae on fingerprints.

However, fingerprints can be compared to each other by examining the minutiae to

determine whether:

• the same minutiae are present (eg a bifurcation);

 • the minutiae flow in the same direction (eg the bifurcation is on a ridge running
horizontally and the two divided ridges are to the right of the bifurcation); and
• the minutiae occupy the same relative positions to each other (eg the bifurcation is
separated from an enclosure below it by six intervening ridges).

Where minutiae on two different fingerprint impressions meet these criteria, they are
referred to as points of similarity. Where minutiae do not meet these criteria, they are
referred to as points of dissimilarity. When sufficient minutiae are located in the same
true relative sequence or unit relationship, then an identification is assumed, and the
points of similarity are referred to as points of identification.

As soon as a fingerprint examiner identifies a single unexplainable point of dissimilarity

between two fingerprint impressions, then he or she assumes there is not a match between
the two fingerprints.

However, there is no international standard for the number of points of identification

required for a match between two fingerprints. (Some countries have set minimum
numbers of points of identification for a match. However, the International Association
for Identification has found that there is no valid basis for such an approach.) Rather, the
fingerprint examiner offers an expert opinion, based on his or her training and experience
and a thorough examination of all the details of the fingerprints, as to whether there is a
match or identification. This opinion will be one of the following:

• there is a match between two fingerprints;

• there is not a match between two fingerprints; or
• the comparison is inconclusive.

The fingerprint examiner does not make judgements about the likelihood or probability of
a match - there is no such thing as a 50% or 80% match. Factors that may lead to an
inconclusive comparison include latent prints being smudged, not sufficiently complete,
or overlaid one over another. Alternatively, dirt or other materials on the finger at the
time the latent impression was made may result in it being dissimilar.