CRIMINALISTICS: DACTYLOSCOPY - The Forensic Science of Fingerprint Identification

CRIMINALISTICS: DACTYLOSCOPY: 
The Forensic Science of Fingerprint Identification

Dactyloscopy

     A study on the  analysis  and  classification  of  patterns observed  in  individual   prints.          Fingerprints  are made  of series  of ridges and  furrows on the surface of a finger; the          loops, whorls, and arches formed by those ridges and furrows generally follow a number      of distinct patterns.

What are fingerprints?

     Fingerprints  are  reproductions  of the patterns formed by the papillary ridges located on the       palm side of the fingers and thumbs.

     The established facts show that the chance against one finger producing a print identical with      that of another finger, whether on the same hand or on the hand of another person, is so            astronomical in number that for all practical human purposes it is reasonable to conclude that      such a chance will never materialize. It has been computed that, theoretically, two identical          prints would be found only once during a period longer than that which astronomers estimate       is needed for the sun to grow cold.

Types of Patterns
1. Arch  

             a. Plain Arch
              b. Tented Arch

2. Loop  

             a. Radial Loop
              b. Ulnar Loop

3. Whorl a. Plain Whorl
               b. Central Pocket Loop
               c. Double Loop
               d. Accidental Whorl

Plain Arch 

1. Ridges enter upon one side

2. Make a rise or wave in the center

3. Flow or tend to flow out upon the opposite side.

Tented Arch - Possesses the following:

1.     Angle

2.    Upthrust

3.    Two of The Three basic characteristics of the loop

Loop - 1. One or more ridges enter upon either side
            2. Recurve
            3. Touch or pass an imaginary line between delta and core
            4. Pass out or tend to pass out upon the same side the ridges
               entered.

           Three Loop Characteristics
           1. A sufficient recurve
           2. A Delta
           3. A ridge count across a looping ridge

Ulnar loop - flow toward the little finger - ulna bone.

Radial Loop - flow toward the thumb - radius bone.

Plain Whorl

1.     Consists of one or more ridges which make or tend to make a complete circuit

2.    With 2 deltas

3.    Between which, when an imaginary line is drawn, at least one recurving ridge within the inner pattern area is cut or touched.

Central Pocket Loop

1.     Consists of at least one recurving  ridge or

2.     An obstruction at right angles to  the line of flow

3.    With 2 delta's

4.    Between which, when an imaginary line is drawn, no recurving ridge within the inner pattern area is cut or touched.

Double Loop

1.     Consists of two separate loop formations

2.    With two separate and distinct set of shoulders and

3.    Two delta's

Accidental Whorl

1.   Consists of a combination of two different types of patterns with the exception of the plain arch

2.    With 2 or more delta's or  

3.   A pattern which possesses some of the requirements for 2 or more different types or a pattern which conforms to none of the definitions.

Ridge Characteristics

1.     Ridge Dots - An isolated ridge unit whose length approximates its width in size.

2.     Bifurcations - The point at which one friction ridge divides
 into two friction ridges.

3.     Trifurcations - The point at which one friction ridge divides
 into three friction ridges.

4.     Ending Ridge - A single friction ridge that terminates within
the friction ridge structure.

5.     Ridge Crossing - A point where two ridge units intersect.

6.     Enclosures (Lakes) - A single friction ridge that bifurcates and rejoins after a short course and continues as a single friction ridge.

7.     Short Ridges (Islands) - Friction ridges of varying lengths.

8.     Spurs (Hooks) - A bifurcation with one short ridge branching off a longer ridge.

9.     Bridges - A connecting friction ridge between parallel running
   ridges, generally right angles.

Fingerprinting Historical Account:

As we all knew three great Englishmen — Sir William Herschel (1833 - 1917), Sir Francis Galton (1822 - 1911), and Sir Edward Henry (1859 - 1931) — were outstanding in their contributions to the science of fingerprint identification.

It was Herschel who proved that the groupings of the papillary ridges (they are formed in the first few months of foetal life) remain constant from birth to death. This he did by taking test prints at intervals, ranging over a long period, of his own fingers and those of other people. The result of these tests established the reliability of fingerprints as a means of human identification.

Galton did much pioneer research work, chiefly from data supplied by Herschel, but it was Henry who produced a workable system. In 1901 his system was officially adopted and the same year saw the inception of the Fingerprint Bureau at Scotland Yard.

Henry's system displaced Bertillon's anthropometric method of identification by means of bodily measurements, and its superiority soon became recognised.

The new system of the registration of habitual criminals was implemented by directions to the governors of prisons to take and forward to Scotland Yard the fingerprints of prisoners convicted and sentenced to one month's imprisonment or more. Later the scope of registration was extended to include persons sentenced to imprisonment at lower courts for lesser offences.

Ancient Babylon 

      As  old   as the   earliest recorded civilization  (1000-2000BC)  the  fingerprints  were used in       clay tablets for business transactions.

Azizul Haque and Hem Chandra Bose(1897)

     Two East Indian fingerprint experts credited with primary development of the Henry System         of  fingerprint classification (named after their supervisor, Edward  Richard Henry).

Alphonse Bertillon 

      He was a French criminologist and anthropologist who created  the first  system of physical         measurements, photography, an record-keeping that police could use to identify recidivist           criminals. 

Dr. Henry P. DeForrest 

      Known to have accomplished the first fingerprint file established in the United States, and           the first use of fingerprinting by a U.S. government agency.

Dr. Nehemiah Grew 

       He was the first European to publish friction ridge skin observations in 1684.

Edmond Locard 

       He  was  referred   to  as the  Sherlock  Holmes of France, He developed  the science  of            poroscopy, the  study of fingerprint  pores and the impressions  produced  by  these pores.          He  went on  to write  that if 12  specific points were  identical  between  two fingerprints,  it          would be  sufficient for positive identification. This work led to the use of fingerprints in                identifying  criminals  being adopted over Bertillon's earlier technique of anthropometry.

Gilbert Thompson 

        He used his thumb print on a document to prevent forgery. First known use of fingerprints i          in the U.S.

John Evangelist Purkinje 

         He was an anatomy professor at the University of Breslau, in 1823, he published his thesis          discussing nine fingerprint patterns but he made no mention of the value of fingerprints for            personal identification.

Juan Vucetich

        In 1892, two boys were brutally murdered in the village of Necochea, near Buenos Aires,              Argentina.   Initially,   suspicion   fell   on  a   man   named   Velasquez,  a   suitor  of   the            children's mother, Francisca Rojas. Investigators found a bloody fingerprint at the crime              scene   and  contacted  Juan  Vucetich,  who was developing  a   system   of   fingerprint            identification for police use. Vucetich compared  the fingerprints of Rojas and Velasquez              with the bloody fingerprint. Francisca Rojas had denied touching the bloody bodies, but              the fingerprint matched one of hers. Confronted with the evidence, she confessed—the                first successful use of fingerprint identification in a murder investigation.

Marcelo Malpighi 

         in  1686,  an  anatomy  professor  at the University  of Bologna,  noted fingerprint  ridges,            spirals  and  loops  in  his  treatise. A layer  of skin was named after him; "Malpighi" layer,            which is approximately 1.8mm thick.

Mark Twain 

         Author of the novel Pudd'nhead Wilson where one of the characters has a hobby of                      collecting fingerprints.

Paul-Jean Coulier 

         Originated from Val-de-Grâce in Paris, published his observations that (latent) fingerprints          can  be  developed  on  paper  by  iodine  fuming,  explaining  how  to  preserve (fix) such             developed  impressions  and mentioning the potential for identifying suspects' fingerprints           by use of a magnifying glass.

Important Dates in the study of Fingerprints:

1000-2000 B.C. 
      Fingerprints were used on clay tablets for business transactions in ancient Babylon.

 3rd Century B.C.
     Thumbprints begin to be used on clay seal in China to “sign” documents.

 610-907 A.D. 
      During the T’ang  Dynasty,  a  time  when imperial  China   was  one  of  the  most  powerful       and wealthy regions of the world, fingerprints are reportedly used on official documents.

1st Century A.D.
      A petroglyph  located on a cliff face in  Nova Scotia depicts a hand with exaggerated ridges         and finger whorls, presumably left by the Mi'kmaq people.


14th Century A.D. 
      Many   official   government   documents   in   Persia   have   fingerprint  impressions.  One         government physician makes the observation that no two fingerprints were an exact
      match.

 1686 
      At the University of Bologna in Italy, a professor of anatomy named Marcello Malpighi notes         the  common  characteristics  of  spirals,  loops  and  ridges  in  fingerprints, using the newly       invented   microscope   for   his studies.  In  time, a 1.88mm thick layer of skin, the “Malpighi       layer,”   was  named  after  him. Although  Malpighi  was likely the first to document types of       fingerprints,  the  value  of  fingerprints  as  identification   tools  was  never mentioned in his       writings.

 1823 
      A  thesis  is  published  by  Johannes  Evengelista Purkinje,  professor  of anatomy  with the       University   of  Breslau, Prussia.  The  thesis  details  a full nine different fingerprint patterns.
      Still, like Malpighi, no mention is made of fingerprints as an individual identification method.

1858 
     The  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Hooghly  district in Jungipoor, India, Sir William Herschel, first      used fingerprints to “sign” contracts with native Indians. In July of 1858, a local businessman       named  Rajyadhar  Konai  put  his  hand  print  on  back  of a contract at Herschel’s request.       Herschel  was  not  motivated  by  the  need to prove personal identity; rather, his motivation       was  to  simply “frighten (Konai) out of all thought of repudiating his signature.” As the locals       felt  more  bound  to a contract through this personal contact than if it was just signed, as did       the  ancient  Babylonians  and  Chinese,  Herschel  adopted the practice permanently. Later,       only the prints of the right index and middle fingers were required on contracts. In time, after       viewing a number of fingerprints, Herschel noticed that no two prints were exactly alike, and       he   observed  that   even   in   widespread  use, the  fingerprints  could be used for personal       identification purposes.

1880
      Dr.  Henry   Faulds,  a   British  surgeon  and  Superintendent  of  Tsukiji  Hospital  in  Tokyo,       published  an article in the Scientific Journal, "Nautre" (nature). He discussed fingerprints as       a means of personal identification, and the use of printers ink as a method for obtaining such       fingerprints. Faulds  had  begun  his  study of what he called “skin-furrows” during the 1870s       after  looking  at  fingerprints  on  pieces  of old  clay pottery. He is also credited with the first       fingerprint  identification:  a  greasy  print  left  by  a  laboratory worker on a bottle of alcohol.       Soon, Faulds began to recognize that the  distinctive patterns on fingers held great promise         as a means  of  individual  identification,  and developed a classification system for recording       these   inked   impressions.   Also   in   1880, Faulds   sent   a  description  of  his fingerprint       classification  system  to  Sir  Charles  Darwin. Darwin, aging and in poor health, declined to       assist Dr.  Faulds  in the further study of  fingerprints, but forwarded the information on to his       cousin, British scientist Sir Francis Galton.

 1882 
      Gilbert Thompson, employed by the U.S. Geologiin New Mexico, uses his own fingerprints         on a document to guard against forgery. This event is the first known use of fingerprints for         identification in America.

1883 
      “Life  on  the   Mississippi,”  a  novel  by  Mark  Twain,  tells  the  story of a murderer who is          identified   by   the   use   of   fingerprints.   His later book "Pudd'n Head Wilson” includes a          courtroom drama involving fingerprint identification.

1888 
      Sir  Francis Galton’s began his study of fingerprints  during the 1880s, primarily to develop a       tool for determining genetic history and hereditary traits. Through careful study of the work of       Faulds,   which   he   learned   of   through   his   cousin   Sir   Charles Darwin, as well as his       examination   of   fingerprints   collected  by  Sir William Herschel, Galton became the first to       provide   scientific   evidence  that no  two  fingerprints  are exactly the same, and that prints       remain   the   same  throughout  a   person’s  lifetime. He  calculated  that the odds of finding
      two identical fingerprints were 1 in 64 billion.


1892 
      Galton’s book “Fingerprints” is published, the first of its kind. In the book, Galton detailed the       first classification system for fingerprints; he identified three types  (loop, whorl, and arch) of       characteristics   for   fingerprints  (also known as minutia).   These  characteristics  are  to an       extent still in use today, often referred to as Galton’s Details.


1892 
      Juan  Vucetich,  an Argentine police official, had recently begun keeping the first fingerprint         files  based  on  Galton’s Details.  History  was  made  that  year  when  Vucetich  made  the
      first  criminal  fingerprint  identification.  A  woman named Rojas had murdered her two sons,       then cut her own throat to deflect blame from herself. Rojas left a bloody print on a doorpost.
      After  investigators  matched  the  crime scene print to that of the accused, Rojas confessed.       Vucetich   eventually   developed   his  own  system  of  classification,  and published a book       entitled  Dactiloscopía   Comparada   ("Comparative Fingerprinting")  in  1904,  detailing  the       Vucetich system, still the most used system in Latin America.

 1896 
      British official Sir Edward Richard Henry had been living in Bengal, and was looking to use a       system similar to that of Herschel’s to eliminate problems within his jurisdiction. After visiting       Sir  Francis  Galton  in  England,  Henry  returned  to  Bengal  and  instituted  a fingerprinting       program  for  all  prisoners.  By  July  of  1896,  Henry wrote in a report that the classification
      limitations  had  not yet been addressed. A short time later, Henry developed a system of his       own,  which  included  1,024  primary  classifications.  Within  a  year,  the Governor General
      signed  a  resolution  directing that  fingerprinting was to be the  official method of identifying       criminals in British India.

 1901 
      Back in England and Wales, the success of the “Henry Fingerprint Classification System” in         India   was   creating   a   stir,   and   a   committee   was  formed  to  review Scotland Yard's       identification   methods. Henry   was  then  transferred  to England, where he began training       investigators  to  use the Henry Classification System after founding Scotland Yard's Central
      Fingerprint  Bureau. Within a few years, the Henry Classification  System was in use around       the world,  and  fingerprints  had been  established as the uniform system of identification for       the future. The Henry Classification System is still in use today in English speaking countries       around the globe.

1902 
      Alphonse  Bertillon, director of the Bureau of  Identification of the Paris Police, is responsible       for the first criminal identification of a fingerprint without a known suspect.  A print taken from       the scene of a homicide was compared against   the criminal fingerprints already on file, and       a match  was  made, marking another milestone in law enforcement technology.  Meanwhile,       the  New  York Civil Service Commission, spearheaded  by Dr. Henry P. DeForrest, institutes       testing of the first systematic use of fingerprints in the United States.

1903 
      Fingerprinting technology comes into widespread use in  the United States, as the New York       Police  Department, the New  York  State Prison  system  and the Federal Bureau of Prisons       begin working with the new science.

1904 
      The  St.  Louis  Police  Department  and  the Leavenworth State Penitentiary in Kansas start       utilizing  fingerprinting,  assisted  by  a Sergeant from Scotland Yard who had been guarding       the British Display at the St. Louis Exposition.

1905 
      The U.S.  Army gets on the fingerprinting bandwagon, and   within three years was joined by       the   U.S.  Navy   and   Marine  Corps.  In  the  ensuing  25  years, as more law enforcement       agencies   joined   in   using   fingerprints as personal identification methods, these agencies       began sending copies of the fingerprint cards  to the recently established National Bureau of       Criminal Investigation.


1911 
      The first central storage location for fingerprints in North America is established in Ottawa by       Edward  Foster  of the  Dominion  Police  Force.  The  repository  is maintained by the Royal
      Canadian  Mounted  Police,  and  while it originally held only 2000 sets of fingerprints, today       the number is over 2 million.

1924 
      The U.S. Congress acts to establish the Identification Division of the F.B.I. The National               Bureau   and   Leavenworth are   consolidated   to   form the  basis  of  the F.B.I. fingerprint         repository.  By  1946,   the F.B.I.  had processed 100 million fingerprint cards;   that number         doubles by 1971.


1990s 
      Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems or AFIS,   begin   widespread   use around the       country.  This computerized   system  of storing  and  cross-referencing   criminal  fingerprint       records   would   eventually   become   capable   of   searching  millions of  fingerprint files in       minutes, revolutionizing law enforcement efforts.

1996 
      As   Americans   become  more  concerned  with the growing missing and abducted children       problem,   and   law  enforcement   groups urge the fingerprinting of children for investigative       purposes in the event of a child becoming missing,Chris Migliaro founds Fingerprint America       in Albany,   NY.   The company provides a simple, at-home fingerprinting and identification kit       for parents, maintaining the family’s  privacy  while   protecting  and educating children about       the   dangers   of   abduction.  By  2001, the   company   distributes   over  5  million Child ID       Fingerprinting Kits around the world.

1999 
      The FBI phases out the use of paper fingerprint cards with their new Integrated AFIS (IAFIS)       site   at   Clarksburg,  West  Virginia. IAFIS will starts with individual computerized fingerprint       record for approximately 33 million criminals, while the outdated paper cards for the civil files       are kept at a facility in Fairmont, West Virginia.



Fingerprint Terminologies:

Anthropometry - the first system of personal identification.

Bertillon System - a system of identification which focuses on the
meticulous measurement and recording of different parts and components
of the human body.

Chiroscopy – It is the examination and thorough study fo the palms of
the human hand as a point indentifying persons.

Core - 1. Approximate center of the pattern
       2. It is placed upon or within the innermost sufficient recurve.

Delta - 1. point on a ridge at or nearest to the point of divergence
           of two typelines and
        2. is located at or directly in front of the point of
           divergence.

Edgeoscopy – the study of the morphological characteristics of
friction ridges; shape or contour of the edges of friction ridges.

Fingerprint - is an impression of the friction ridge of all or any
part of the finger. Fingerprint ridges are formed during the third
to fourth month of fetal development.

Poroscopy 
   Refers to the examination of the shape,size and arrangement of the small opening on friction          ridge through which body fluids are secreted or released.

Podoscopy 
A term coined by Wilder and Wenworth which refers to the examination of the soles and their significance in personal identification.

Ridgeology 
Describes the individualization process of any area of friction skin using all available detail.

Typelines 
1. Two innermost ridges that start or go parallel
2. Diverge and surround or tend to surround the pattern area

Types of Fingerprints
1. Visible Prints
2. Latent Prints
3. Impressed Prints

Visible Prints 
Also called patent prints and are left in some medium, like blood, that reveals them to the naked eye when blood, dirt, ink or grease on the finger come into contact with a smooth surface and leave a friction ridge impression that is visible without development.

Latent Prints 
Mostly not apparent to the naked eye. They are formed from the sweat from sebaceous glands on the body or water, salt, amino acids and oils contained in sweat. They can be made sufficiently visible by dusting, fuming or chemical reagents.


Impressed prints 
Also called plastic prints and are indentations left in soft pliable surfaces, such as clay, wax, paint or another surface that will take the impression. They are visible and can be viewed or photographed without development.

Fingerprint Classification Systems

1.  The Henry Classification System – developed by Henry in the late 1800s.

2.   Icnofalangometric System – the original name of the system developed by Vucetichin 1891

3.   Dactiloscopy – the new name of the system developed by Vucetich.

4.   The Oloriz System of Classification – developed by Oloriz Identakey – developed in the 1930s by G. Tyler Mairs.

5.   The American System of Fingerprint Classification – developed by Parke in1903.

6.   The Conley System. The Flack-Conley System – developed in 1906 in New Jersey, an improved Conley System.

7.   NCIC Fingerprint Classification System Collins System – a classification system for single fingerprints used in Scotland Yard inthe early 1900s.

8.   Jorgensen System – a classification system for single fingerprints used in the early1900s.

9.   Battley System – a classification system for single fingerprints used in the 1930s