Fingerprints can have several different applications in litigation. The first is showing a person was in a particular place, such as a crime scene. Other evidential values that are often overlooked are fingerprints on anonymous notes or other documents where someone denies a connection to or authorship of a particular document. We can develop fingerprints that have been on paper for up to several years.
The theory for the use of fingerprints and palmprints as a positive means of identification is based on two principles:
* 1) They are “permanent” in that they are formed in the fetal stage, before birth, and remain the same throughout their lifetime, barring disfiguration by scarring until after death when decomposition sets in.
* 2) They are “unique” in that no two fingerprints, or friction ridge area, made by different fingers or areas, are the same (or are identical in their ridge characteristic arrangement).
The display below points out some of the parts of a fingerprint and the characteristics used to identify them (ridge ending, bifurcation, enclosure, short ridge, and ridge dot).
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1) Ridge Ending | 5) Ridge dot |
2) Bifurcation | 6) Core |
3) Enclosure or Island | 7) Delta |
4) Flexure crease | 8) Short Ridge |
A comparison is made by searching the inked (known) fingerprint and the latent (unknown) fingerprint for corresponding ridge characteristics.
These ridge characteristics have to be of the same shape and type, occupy the same relative position, and possess an adequate number of identification points with no unexplainable differences in both the inked print and the latent print before a positive identification can be made.
Speckin Forensic Laboratories has been involved in cases all around the world, from North America, South America, Australia, Europe, Asia, Japan, Hong Kong, and all 50 of the U.S. states Our examiners have presented testimony in over 30 states in the United States, as well as, Jamaica, Israel, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Japan, and Canada.
Speckin Forensic Laboratories has been requested to share its services in the Federal Court, Circuit Court, District Court, Supreme Court, NASD Arbitrations, Employment Arbitrations, Depositions, Municipal Court, Board of Canvassers, Federal Grand Juries, Detroit Recorder’s Court, and Union Arbitrations on over 1000 occasions.