Catching Criminals: The Importance of Prints

1519 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Importance of printing

When it comes to a crime, criminals are able to cover up many types of evidence. One piece of evidence that is almost impossible to cover up is prints. Because of the difficulty behind covering prints, they are the most important part of solving a crime. The types of prints range from Fingerprints to palm prints and even lip prints can be used to solve a crime. Prints are the most important piece of evidence because prints are left everywhere anyone touches, they are not easily covered up, all prints are unique, and because many parts of your body produce prints without you even trying. When talking about the importance of prints it is vital to notice that prints serve many roles and for the most part the average person doesn’t know any more about prints than what they have seen on CSI or other television shows. With enough research it is found that prints are more complex, interesting, and unique than might be thought.
My research topic is very important because people don’t realize that without prints crimes would be much harder to solve. Without prints there would be no evidence at a crime scene that lasts long enough without disappearing. What people need to realize is that there is more to prints than just fingerprints and that there is more involved when collecting and processing them than what is shown on television. When dealing with prints it is important to understand that prints are very fragile and can easily be obstructed during the removal process. Removing a print is more complicated then it seems because of how careful you have to be and the fact that you only really get one shot when doing so. Prints are one of a kind so no two people can have the same prints. This just increases the importance of prints so that ...

... middle of paper ...

...commit a crime, because prints are going to leave you behind bars and a very unhappy person.

Works Cited

Bond, J. W. (2009). The value of fingerprint evidence in detecting crime. International Journal Of Police Science & Management, 11(1), 77-84. doi:10.1350/ijps.2009.11.1.111

Dineshshankar, J., Ganapathi, N., Yoithapprabhunath, T., Maheswaran, T., Kumar, M., & Aravindhan, R. (2013). Lip prints: Role in forensic odontology. Journal Of Pharmacy & Bioallied Sciences, 5S95-S97. doi:10.4103/0975-7406.113305

Singh, H., Chhikara, P., & Singroha, R. (2011). LIP PRINTS AS EVIDENCE. Journal Of Punjab Academy Of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, 11(1), 23-25.

Waldron, P., (24 October, 2013). Catching Criminals Red-Palmed. Out of the fog.

Zhou, Y., Zeng, Y., Lizhen, & Hu, W. (2002). Application and development of palm print research. Technology & Health Care, 10(5), 383.

Show More
Related

  • The Pros And Cons Of DNA Analysis

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    The National Research Council’s key role was to analyze statistical and population genetic issues in the use of DNA evidence and review major alternative approaches to statistical evaluation of DNA evidence (The Evaluation of Forensic DNA, 50). Over the past fifteen years, DNA profiling has made tremendous advancements and continuous improvements in the fight against violent crime.

    Read More

  • Forensic Science In The Real CSI

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    Crime is a common public issue for people living in the inner city, but is not limited to only urban or highly populated cities as it can undoubtedly happen in small community and rural areas as well. In The Real CSI, the documentary exemplified many way in which experts used forensic science as evidence in trial cases to argue and to prove whether a person is innocent or guilty. In this paper, I explained the difference in fingerprinting technology depicted between television shows and in reality, how DNA technology change the way forensics evidence is used in the court proceedings, and how forensic evidence can be misused in the United States adversarial legal system.

    Read More

  • Criminal Profiling Essay

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although physical proof is vital in police investigations, when there's depleted evidence present at the crime scene, offender profiles are often created to lead law enforcement towards physical evidence and possible suspects. This is important as physical evidence such as fingerprints, fibres and biological evidence, aids to establish the guilt or innocence of potential suspects, although criminal profiling can be used in court it itself is not evidence but built of evidence from the crime scene to establish

    Read More

  • Trace Evidence

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    Document examiners can look at these and establish the similarities in the handwriting, and computer forensic specialists can extract logs and other data from most devices. As you can see, there is no perfect crime. The littlest piece of hair, paint, or anything left behind can be found. Suspects often miss these tiny pieces of evidence and while they look over it, it is still lurking at the crime scene. It is guaranteed that a Crime Scene Investigator will find this evidence no matter how small and use it to find, prosecute, and convict a criminal.

    Read More

  • Serial Killers and Criminal Justice

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Advance in Forensics Provide Creative Tools for Solving Crimes.” www.ctcase.org. Np. n.d. Web. 17 March 2014.

    Read More

  • Forensics in the Criminal Justice System

    334 Words  | 1 Pages

    The criminal justice system has changed a lot since the good old days of the Wild West when pretty much anything was legal. Criminals were dealt with in any fashion the law enforcement saw fit. The science of catching criminals has evolved since these days. We are better at catching criminals than ever and we owe this advancement to forensic science. The development of forensic science has given us the important techniques of fingerprinting and DNA analysis. We can use these techniques to catch criminals, prove people's innocence, and keep track of inmates after they have been paroled. There are many different ways of solving crimes using forensic evidence. One of these ways is using blood spatter analysis; this is where the distribution and pattern of bloodstains is studied to find the nature of the event that caused the blood spatter. Many things go into the determination of the cause including: the effects of various types of physical forces on blood, the interaction between blood and the surfaces on which it falls, the location of the person shedding the blood, the location and actions of the assailant, and the movement of them both during the incident. Another common type of forensic evidence is trace evidence. This is commonly recovered from any number of items at a crime scene. These items can include carpet fibers, clothing fibers, or hair found in or around the crime scene. Hairs recovered from crime scenes can be used as an important source of DNA. Examination of material recovered from a victim's or suspect's clothing can allow association to be made between the victim and other people, places, or things involved in the investigation. DNA analysis is the most important part of forensic science. DNA evidence can come in many forms at the crime scene. Some of these forms include hair; bodily fluids recovered at the crime scene or on the victim's body, skin under the victim's fingernails, blood, and many others. This DNA can be the basis of someone's guilt or innocence; it has decided many cases in the twentieth century. As the times continue to change and the criminals get smarter we will always need to find new ways to catch them. Forensic science is the most advanced method yet, but is only the beginning. As the field of science grows so will the abilities of the

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of DNA Collection And Its Relationship To Solving Crime

    1511 Words  | 4 Pages

    Once a crime has been committed the most important item to recover is any type of evidence left at the scene. If the suspect left any Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) at the crime scene, he could then be linked to the crime and eventually charged. A suspect’s DNA can be recovered if the suspect leaves a sample of his or her DNA at the crime scene. However, this method was not always used to track down a suspect. Not too long ago, detectives used to use bite marks, blood stain detection, blood grouping as the primary tool to identify a suspect. DNA can be left or collected from the hair, saliva, blood, mucus, semen, urine, fecal matter, and even the bones. DNA analysis has been the most recent technique employed by the forensic science community to identify a suspect or victim since the use of fingerprinting. Moreover, since the introduction of this new technique it has been a la...

    Read More

  • Crime Scene Investigator Research Paper

    977 Words  | 2 Pages

    The three different main types of fingerprints are Loops, Arches, and Whorls (Jackson 1). Henry Faulds is known as the Father of Fingerprints and developing fingerprints (Jackson 1). His discovery of fingerprints has made a huge impact not only in his time but, in Modern Crime Scene Investigation (Jackson 1). Without fingerprinting, it would be very difficult to convict criminals of crimes and very hard to try to process information. Crime Scene Investigators make a huge impact in Forensic Science. We need CSI workers, without them people could only imagine what crime would be like not only in our community, but in our

    Read More

  • History and Cultural Diffusion of Tattoos in America

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sperry, K. (1991). Tattoos And Tattooing. The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, 12(4), 356. Retrieved November 29, 2013, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00000433-199112000-00042

    Read More

  • Organic vs. Inorganic Material

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    Review, PubMed PMID: 19543886. Saferstein, R. (2011). Criminalistics: An introduction to forensic science (10th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

    Read More

  • History of Fingerprinting

    1454 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...A. Maria, Ruth M. Robin. (2009). Latent prints: a perspective on the state of the science. Forensic Science Communications. 11.4.

    Read More

  • Collecting the Evidence From a Crime Scene

    1095 Words  | 3 Pages

    Blood stains are one type of evidence that can be found at a crime scene. Blood that is still in the liquid form should be picked up on a gauze pad. Once the blood is dried thoroughly it should be refrigerated and sent to the Laboratory (Andrus et al., n.d., para. 1). If the blood stain is found dried on clothing, the officer should wrap the piece of clothing in clean paper and place it in a sealed and labeled container. An object with dried blood stains needs to be sent to the Laboratory if it is small enough. If the object is too large to send, then using a clean knife the stain needs to be scraped onto a clean piece of paper, which then can be folded and placed in an envelope (Andrus et al., n.d., para. 2). When collecting autopsy blood samples, the officer should request that the pathologist obtain the sample directly from the heart and place it in a yellow or purple stoppered vacutainer. If the victim is still alive but in serious need of a blood transfusion, then the pre-transfusion blood sample needs to be obtained promptly before the hospital discards it (Andrus et al., n.d., para. 4). It is important for the Laboratory to receive all blood samples within 48 ho...

    Read More

  • Processing a Crime Scene

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gaensslen, R. E., Harris, H A., & Lee, H. (2008). Introduction to Forensic Science and Criminalistics. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. .

    Read More

  • Forensic Science: Stopping the Crime

    1600 Words  | 4 Pages

    Forensic Science, recognized as Forensics, is the solicitation of science to law to understand evidences for crime investigation. Forensic scientists are investigators that collect evidences at the crime scene and analyse it uses technology to reveal scientific evidence in a range of fields. Physical evidence are included things that can be seen, whether with the naked eye or through the use of magnification or other analytical tools. Some of this evidence is categorized as impression evidence2.In this report I’ll determine the areas of forensic science that are relevant to particular investigation and setting out in what method the forensic science procedures I have recognized that would be useful for the particular crime scene.

    Read More

  • Forensic Science History Essay

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    Forensic science has now been recognized as an important part of the law enforcement team to help solve crimes and cold cases. The advances in technology are being used each day and we must continue to strive to develop better advances in this field. The recent discovery of using DNA in criminal cases has helped not only positively identify the suspect, but it has helped exonerate hundreds of innocent individuals. “With new advances in police technology and computer science, crime scene investigation and forensic science will only become more precise as we head into the future.” (Roufa, 2017) Forensic science and evidence helps law enforcement officials solve crimes through the collection, preservation and analysis of evidence. By having a mobile crime laboratory, the scene gets processed quicker and more efficiently. Forensic science will only grow in the future to be a benefit for the criminal justice

    Read More

More about Catching Criminals: The Importance of Prints

Open Document