The Importance Of Fingerprints In Criminal Investigations

FINGERPRINTS IN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS

Fingerprints have been studied for uniqueness, identification and criminal importance for more than one hundred years. The significance of fingerprints and the criminal justice system can’t be undervalued; they can implicate the guilty by linking a criminal to the victim and the scene of the crime and exonerate the innocent. Through technology and expertly trained fingerprint examiners, the fingerprint can be the single most important piece of evidence for solving a crime.

Fingerprints became an important identification of criminals in a criminal investigation when a book written by Sir Francis Galton from England titled “Fingerprints” was published in 1892. It has been discovered that the earliest

Often, a criminal can be identified on the basis of fingerprints alone. The use of computer technology is also an important element in criminal investigations. Over the last two decades, policemen and detectives have discovered that computers help to make their work quicker and more reliable. During this period, there has also been an increase in the use of computers for the identification of fingerprints. Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems have been proven successful in terms of tracking down and stopping criminals. Because they are so successful, an increasing number of police departments are using Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems in their

By the early 1900's, each print was being classified according to its own characteristic pattern. In this way, the individual pattern of each fingerprint became a fool-proof guideline for tracking down criminals.

By the 1920's, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had become interested in the use of fingerprints for the "identification of criminals." J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI at that time, was an important figure in the development of the use of fingerprints in criminal investigations.

Although fingerprinting has been around for nearly one hundred years, the use of computers in solving criminal cases did not begin until about two decades ago. Before that time, the use of computers in law enforcement was not practical. This was because the early computers were both very large and very expensive. In the early 1970s, however, microcomputers were introduced into American society. These computers were much smaller and much cheaper, yet they were able to do almost as much work as the larger ones. With the introduction of microcomputers, the use of computers quickly spread among American businesses and homes as well as among criminal investigators. Before the rise of the microcomputer, investigators were extremely limited in the amount of work that they could do. However, the microcomputer changed this with its ability to handle "many large data bases." In addition to its ability