The Importance Of Fingerprinting

1874 Words4 Pages

Fingerprinting
A pale, water-filled body washes up on a lonely stretch of an open beach in a non-rural area. A car accident takes the life of a driver or passenger during a short trip home or perhaps to a store nearby. A massive fire is caught in a methamphetamine lab and devastates an apartment building or a home. A boyfriend or girlfriend murders their significant other and frames them for committing suicide. A child shows up missing for months and is later found dead in the middle of deep woods. These are all a great example of a crime scene. So what exactly is a crime scene? It is the place or area where an offense has been committed and forensic evidence may be gathered. Thankfully, there are people who go in and dig deeper into …show more content…

Whereas all of these different aspects are very important for their roles played in crime scene investigation, collecting latent fingerprints happens to really standout as a very useful source due to two features: their persistence and their uniqueness. Fingerprinting alone can tell investigators so much about a crime scene, and automatically leads to well thought out conclusions. They offer an infallible means of personal identification. That is the essential explanation for fingerprints having replaced other methods of establishing the identities of criminals reluctant to admit previous arrests. For example; let’s say a young, first time mother has a three year old child. She has been living with the father of her child, …show more content…

If there are any slight unexplained differences between the prints, the known fingerprint may be excluded as a specific source. If there are no unexplained differences, the conclusion would be identification. The last and final step is the verification of the evaluation. Specialists of fingerprinting evaluate and analyze all the small and tiny curves and swirls of the fingerprints to determine and decide if they are the same pattern that are being dealt with in the crimes. Databases such as AFIS, Automated Fingerprint Identification System, have been created as a way of assisting the fingerprint examiners during these examinations. These databases help provide a fast and quicker way to sort through matches that are more unlikely. This leads to much faster paced identification of unknown prints and allows fingerprints to be as widely used as possible as they are in criminal investigations. These steps are what make for success in

Open Document