Learning Objectives

1 Summarize the history of fingerprinting

2 Explain the theory behind fingerprinting

3 Explain the principles of fingerprinting

4 Identify the various fingerprint patterns

5
Describe the methods used
to visualize fingerprints
1
Fingerprints

1000 BC, China

Used as signatures?

Chinese seal with

engraved name

2
Fingerprints

William Herschel

Late 19th century

Allowed illiterate people to sign

documents with their thumbprints

3
Fingerprints

Henry Faulds

1880

Fingerprints vary from person to person

Use of fingerprints to identify criminals?

Idea rejected by Scotland Yard

4
Fingerprints

Mark Twain, 1884

“Pudd’nhead Wilson”

5
Fingerprints

“Every human being carries with him from his cradle to

his grave certain physical marks which do not change
their character and by which he can always be
identified. And that without shade of doubt or question.
These marks are his signature, his physiological
autograph so to speak, and this autograph cannot be
counterfeited, nor can he disguise it or hide it in any way,
nor can it become illegible by the wear and mutation of
time.”
– Pudd’nhead Wilson, Mark Twain
6
Fingerprints

Francis Galton

1892

Classified different
marks in fingerprints

Sir Francis Galton

7
Fingerprints

Juan Vucetich, 1897

Classification
of fingerprints

Juan Vucetich
8
Fingerprints

Edward Henry, 1897

Proponent of
fingerprints

Sir Edward Richard Henry

9
Fingerprinting

First used in the U.K. in 1901

Used a few years later in the U.S.A.

First used by Juan Vucetich

10
Argentina, 1892

Francesca Rojas’ children murdered

Neighbour Velasquez blamed

Interrogated by the police

Insisted on his innocence

11
Argentina, 1892

Suspicion turned to Rojas No evidence

Juan Vucetich called in to help

Bloody fingerprint found at crime scene

Matched Rojas Convicted

12
Juan Vucetich

Wanted to set up a National fingerprint database

Fingerprint everyone in Argentina

Idea met with public opposition

Attempt failed

13
Deptford, London, 1905

First capital case in the U.K. using fingerprinting

Walter & Ann Farrow found beaten to death

Killed by Alfred & Albert Stratton?

Eyewitnesses

14
Eyewitness account

Henry Alfred Jennings

“I am a milk carrier. Looking at the

prisoners now, I am unable to say one way
or the other whether those are the men I
saw in High Street, Deptford.”

Reasonable doubt
15
Other evidence

Edward Henry

Commissioner of Police, London 1905

Checked crime scene for fingerprints

16
Other evidence

Empty cash-box under the couple’s bed

Should have £9

Motive for murder

17
Other evidence

Empty cash-box under the couple’s bed

1 thumbprint found Owner?

No match to either of the deceased

No match to police officers

Match to Alfred Stratton

18
Trial

First capital case involving fingerprinting

Prosecution had to

Show fingerprint belonged to Alfred Stratton

Demonstrate that technique is reliable

19
Trial

Reliability of fingerprinting?

Prosecution demonstrated reliability

by fingerprinting a member of the jury

Stratton brothers Guilty

20
Locard & Fingerprints

Lyon, 1920s

Mysterious burglaries

Valuable objects and objects of

no particular value were stolen

21
Locard & Fingerprints

Fingerprints are not unique to humans

Burglaries done by a monkey

Where do you find a monkey in France?

Organ grinder
22
Organ grinder with monkey
23
Locard & Fingerprints

Rounded up organ grinders and their monkeys

Fingerprinted the monkeys

One matched those found

at one of the crime scenes

24
Friction ridges

Enable our hands to hold up objects

Pattern of friction ridges

Gives pattern of fingerprints

What is a fingerprint made of?

25
Glands

Excrete Salts

Fats

Amino acids

Proteins
Layers of skin & associated
Water glands and vessels
26
DNA vs Fingerprinting

DNA No two people have the same DNA

Except identical twins

Fingerprints 100+ years of experience

No two people have the same

prints including identical twins
27
First Principle

No two fingers have the same print

Including identical twins

28
Second Principle

Fingerprints do not change during a lifetime

Remains after death for some time

As long as skin survives

Fingerprints can be changed

29
Second Principle

Attempted to destroy
his fingerprints using
concentrated acid

John Dillinger
30
Second Principle

Attempted to destroy
his fingerprints using
concentrated acid

John Dillinger’s fingerprints

31
Second Principle

Take the anti-cancer drug capecitabine?

Side effects

Swelling of tissues of hand and foot

Fingerprints become indistinct

32
Second Principle

Put finger in a rice cooker?

End of finger gets severely burned

Painful

33
Second Principle

Skin grafting

Remove skin from end of a finger

Graft on the skin from another body part

Changing the fingerprint

34
Second Principle Dr. Jose Covarrubias
sentenced to 18 months
Nogales AZ, 2005 NORTH DATOKA MINNESOTA

Harrisburg PA, 2008

WASHINGTON
MONTANA
MICHIGAN
SOUTH DATOKA WISCONSIN MAINE

Marc George OREGON

IDAHO WYOMING
NEBRASKA IOWA
NEW YORK

limps into U.S.A. NEVADA

United States
ILLINOIS
OHIO

WEST
PENNSYLVANIA

UTAH KANSAS VIRGINIA

from Mexico COLORADO

OKLAHOMA
MISSOURI KENTUCKY VIRGINIA

TENNESSEE
CALIFORNIA
NORTH CAROLINA
ARIZONA
ARKANSAS SOUTH
NEW MEXICO CAROLINA
GEORGIA
MISSISSIPPI ALABAMA

Had a skin graft TEXAS

LOUISIANA
ATLANTIC OCEAN

procedure FLORIDA

GULF OF
MEXICO
Third Principle Ridge ending
Bifurcation
Patterns can
be classified Lake
Independent ridge
Fingerprint Dot or island
ridges
Spur

Crossover
36
Fingerprint patterns

Double Whorl
loop whorl

Central pocket Tented arch

loop whorl

Plain arch
Loop
37
Fingerprints

Visible prints

Visible prints
38
Fingerprints

Visible prints

Latent prints

Requires chemical visualisation

39
Origin of Fingerprints

Secretions from skin glands

Metal salts e.g. sodium chloride

Amino acids & proteins

Fats

Water
40
Fingerprint Visualisation

Dusting powder

Physical adhesion
to a fingerprint

41
Dusting powders

Molybdenum disulfide

Carbon black

Aluminium

Contrast with the background

42
Dusting powders

Molybdenum disulfide

Carbon black White surface

Aluminium

Contrast with the background

43
Dusting powders

Molybdenum disulfide

Carbon black White surface

Aluminium Dark surface

Contrast with the background

44
Fingerprint Visualisation

Powder is lifted
off onto a tape

Photographed
and preserved

Lifted fingerprint
45
Chemical reagents

1 Ninhydrin Apply and heat

Reacts with amino acids

2 Iodine spray

3 Silver nitrate

46
Physics-based methods

Laser fluorescence

Alone

Using a dye

47
Fuming Cyanoacrylate

“Superglue”

Superglue is
deposited on
the fingerprint
Masato Soba Fuseo
Make it visible Matsumura

48
Fuming Cyanoacrylate

Fume chambers

Can then add dye

and use a laser

Commercial fumehood
49
Fingerprint Visualisation

Electronic databases

Not looking for perfect matches

Give close matches

Require human judgment

50
B r a n d on
Mayfield

51
2004

Brandon Mayfield

An attorney in
Oregon, U.S.A.

Detained as a
material witness
Brandon Mayfield
52
2004

Madrid train
bombing

191 killed

Train after the bombing

53
Bomb fragment

Partial fingerprint Fingerprint

on bomb
fragment
Partial match to
Brandon Mayfield

Mayfield’s
fingerprint
54
Problem
Spain

Oregon

55
Bomb fragment

Only a partial match

to Brandon Mayfield

Print was a perfect match

to Ouhnane Daoud

Ouhnane Daoud
56
“Physical evidence cannot be wrong...
Only human failure to find it, study and
understand it, can diminish its value.”

Edmond Locard (1877-1966)

57
Summary

1 History of fingerprinting

2 Theory behind fingerprinting

3 Principles of fingerprinting

4 Fingerprint patterns

5 Methods to visualise fingerprints

58