Personal Identification in

Forensic Science using

fingerprints
- From living and dead bodies

Ms. Priya Sharma, Assistant Professor, Forensic

Science
 Identification
Identification is the determination of individuality of a person- living
or dead.

• Identification of dead-Recently dead person, Decomposed bodies,

Badly burnt bodies, Mutilated Bodies, If only body part/ bone
fragment is found
• Humanitarian: Dead person has a right to be disposed of with the
ceremonies of his own religion.

• Identification of living- issuing identity cards, passports, driving

license and other legal documents
 Identification

• Death benefits
• Disputed Sex • Interchange of babies
• Inheritance • Impersonation
• Collecting Life insurance • Person accused of criminal
charges
• Marriage/ Remarriage
• To establish corpus delicti
• Missing Person
• Workman’s compensation
• Mass disasters- Victim
Identification
 Identification Data
Footprints, Lip
Sex, Age, Race Complexion
prints Anthropometry Features

Reconstruction Molecular
of features from methods- DNA Fingerprints
Deformities or
Skull Profiling other
Hair
peculiarities like
birthmarks

Identification Behavioral characteristics-

from teeth and Handwrting, Gait Pattern,
Bite marks Acquired Body Marks :
Speech and Voice
Occupation marks, Scars,
Tattoos
 Fingerprints

• Fingerprints are a reproduction of friction skin

ridges found on the palm side of the fingers and
thumbs.

• It is the most important, accurate and unfailing

method of positive identification.
 Origin of Finger Print Science
• The idea that fingerprints could be used as a means of personal identification was
first put forward by Sir William Herschel, District Magistrate of Hooghly District,
of Bengal province in 1858.

• Later, Dr. Henry Faulds gave the idea of tracing a criminal from the latent prints
found at the scene of crime and came to the conclusion that no two fingerprints
are alike.

• Based on the idea of Herschel and Faulds, Sir Francis Galton, the renowned
English Scientist established scientifically the basic principles of uniqueness and
permanency in Finger Prints.
 Friction Ridges
• The skin that covers most our body is relatively smooth, except palmar side of
the hands, and in the plantar side of the feet. Such skin is called as volar skin
or friction ridge skin.

• The friction skin is divided into two main layers. The inner layer is the dermis
and the outer layer is the epidermis.

• Friction ridge skin surfaces have been designed by nature to provide our bodies
with a firmer grasp and a resistance to slippage.
• Each skin ridge is populated by a single row of pores that are the openings
for ducts leading from the sweat glands.

• Through these pores, perspiration is discharged and deposited on the

surface of the skin.

• Once the finger touches a surface, perspiration, along with oils that may
have been picked up by touching the hairy portions of the body, is
transferred onto that surface, thereby leaving an impression of the finger’s
ridge pattern (a fingerprint).

• Prints deposited in this manner are invisible to the eye and are commonly
referred to as latent fingerprints.
A Cross Section Of Friction
Ridge Skin
Fingerprints are
permanent
 Stratum Basale

Keratinocytes divide mitotically and after division cells displaced to upper layer

Stratum Spinosum

Further differentiation with spiny appearance of cells and appearance of lamellar granules inside cells but remain
inactive

Stratum Granulosum

Lamellar granules become active and releases lipid content into the space between the cells which provides the
skin with a hydrophobic barrier
 Stratum Lucidum

The cells are keratinized and completed their programmed cell death but chemical activity
continues inside the cells.

Stratum Corneum

Although are dead, the cells continue to undergo modification and pushed from the deeper portion
of the stratum corneum to the surface of the skin.

The friction ridge skin persists because of the physical attachments throughout
the skin and the regulation of keratinocyte production and differentiation.
Persistence of Friction Ridge Skin

There are three levels of attachment in the friction ridge skin:

1. The primary and secondary ridge attachment with anastomoses

2. The basal cell attached to dermis with hemidesmosomes

3. Cell-to-cell attachments with desmosomes

 Effects of Injury or Disease
• Injury or disease that penetrates the skin to the dermal papillae level
can damage the epidermal basal layer infrastructure. This may
destroy the ability of the basal layer to regenerate cells in the
damaged area.

• Injury or disease that does not penetrate deeply enough to damage

the basal layer will be repaired by the proliferating cells from deeper Hand eczema

in the epidermis.

• In this case, the surface damage will eventually be erased and the
surface ridges returned to their original shape.
 Figures 1 Figures 2 Figures 3

The finger printed in Figures 1 was first printed in 1980. When the finger was printed
again in 1981 (Figure 2) it had developed a wart running across the center of the pattern.
By the time the same finger was printed again in 1982 (Figure 3) the wart had disappeared
and the ridge formations had returned to their original configuration.
Fingerprints are
Unique
• The morphogenesis of friction ridge skin starts during the very first weeks of
gestation.

• The hand starts to develop from 5 to 6 weeks EGA(Estimated Gestational Age).

• The first fingers appear around 6–7 weeks. At that time, volar pads appear on
the palm (interdigital pads first, followed by thenar and hypothenar pads).

• Volar pads are transient swellings of mesenchymal tissue under the epidermis
on the volar surfaces of the fetus.
Embryology

Volar pads appear on each finger at 7–8 weeks

10-12 weeks- volar pads begins to recede

13th week-skin ridges appear

Between 10-16 weeks-local factors like amniotic fluid pressure

influence fingerprint pattern. That’s why fingerprints patterns
are unique.

21st week- fingerprint pattern is complete.

Growth of the hand

(A) paddle like form (magnification =

19.5 X)
(B) the fingers separate (magnification =
17.3 X)
(C) the volar pads become prominent
(magnification = 7.7 X),
(D) achieves infant like appearance by 8
weeks (magnification = 4.2 X).
Volar Pad Formation And Regression

The shape of the volar pads is

controlled by tension from
environment of the fetus and bone
morphology.
The general pattern taken by the ridges is dependent on the following
interrelated factors:

• Shape (symmetry) and size of the volar pads

• Timing between the regression of the volar pads and the onset of primary
ridge formation

• Relative speed of the development fronts

• Bone morphology
Three Levels Of Uniqueness Of Friction Ridges

Level 1

• Level 1 consists of overall pattern configuration and the general morphology exhibited by

the friction ridge impression.

• Growth and regression of the volar pads affect the alignment of ridges .
Pattern Configuration Affected by Volar Pads
Classification of Fingerprints
• According to fingerprint pattern:

Arch(A) Whorl(W) Loop Composite

Classification of Fingerprints

1.Arch-Plain Arch, Tented Arch

2. Loop-Radial Loop, Ulnar Loop

3.Whorl

4.Composite-Central Pocket Loop, Lateral Pocket Loop, Twinned

loop, Accidentals
 Level 2
Minutiae Formation

• Level 2 refers to the type and position of minutiae including their morphology (size and

shape) which are a unique formation.

• Localized stresses (tensions and compressions), resulting from growth of the tissue layers

of the digit and interactions with existing ridge fields, create the second-level uniqueness.

• As the volar surface is growing, existing ridges are separated and form new ridges.
• Bifurcation results of new ridges pulling away from

existing ridges to fill the unridged surface.

• Short ridge results of developing ridge sandwiched

between established ridges.

 Level 3

Level 3 includes all dimensional attributes of a ridge like width, shape,

pores, edge contour, incipient ridges, breaks, creases, scars and other

permanent details.
Poroscopy and Edgeoscopy
• Poroscopy- establishing identity by the comparison of sweat pores.
Shape and size of sweat pores-triangular, Circular, oval or
rectangular.

• Edgeoscopy- identification by the comparison of edges of ridges of

friction skin.
Straight Edge, convex edge, concave edge, peaked edge, Angular edge
 Techniques of fingerprinting
In the living:

• Hands are washed, cleaned and dried. Printer’s ink

is used to take the impressions.

• Two types of impressions are taken:

a) Plain Fingerprint- Finger are placed flat on the

paper

b) Rolled fingerprint- Fingers are rolled from outward

to inward(nail to nail) to get entire tip impression.
 In the dead
• If rigor mortis is too severe to straighten fingers- incision is made into the
palmer surface of fingers at the proximal interphalangeal joint, this would
straighten the fingers.
• In case of decomposed bodies:
• In early putrefaction: Remove the palmer skin of the terminal phalanx of each
finger from both hands, place in 10 separate containers containing 10%
Formalin.
• In advanced putrefaction/drowning- “Skin glove”(Loose skin) is removed,
placed in 10% Formalin.
• If skin glove is missing, impression can be taken from dermis(up to 0.6mm).
• If body is mummified, fingers will be shriveled. Then the fingers will be
immersed in 20% Acetic Acid, they will swell to normal size.
• If fingers are wrinkled- Inject with liquid paraffin or formalin within the
tissues of terminal phalanx of each finger.
A spoon-shaped tool with fingerprint card used for
postmortem friction ridge recording
 Photographs of macerated
hand before (top hand) and
after (bottom hand) “boiling”
treatment.

For situations in which the epidermis is missing or has been totally destroyed because of prolonged
immersion in a liquid, a method known as osmotic rehydration (the boiling method) can produce very
satisfactory results.
Types of Fingerprints
According to discovery at crime scene:

Latent Prints

Plastic Prints

Patent/ Visible Prints

Methods of developing Fingerprints
• Plastic and visible prints required no development.,
because they are already visible.

• Only latent prints need to developed.

1. Physical Techniques: Powder method, Vacuum

Metal Deposition

2. Chemical Techniques: Cyanoacrylate/Superglue

fuming, Ninhydrin method, Diazafluoren(DFO),
Iodine Fuming.
 A heated Superglue fuming a nonporous
fuming cabinet. metallic surface in the search
for latent fingerprints.
(a) A handheld fuming wand uses disposable cartridges containing
cyanoacrylate. The wand is used to develop prints at the crime scene
and (b) in the laboratory.
Comparison of Fingerprints

• Identification- by comparing many details of characteristics

(minutiae)

• ACE-V- Analysis-Comparison-Evaluation- Verification

• Points to be compared- There is no fixed rule. Different countries

adopt different number of points to be compared.

• Generally 16-20 points of comparison are accepted as proof of

identity.
The ACE-V Process
• ACE-V is an acronym for the four-step process— analysis, comparison,
evaluation, and verification— used to identify and individualize a fingerprint.

Step-1 Analysis: The first step requires the examiner to identify any distortions
associated with the friction ridges, as well as any external factors, such as
surface or deposition factors or processing techniques, that may impinge on the
print’s appearance.

• If the examiner determines the latent print adequate, he or she will declare
the print to be of value for the comparison stage.
Step-2 Comparison: to compare the questioned print to the known print at three
levels. The examiner compares the latent print side by side with an exemplar print in
its totality.

Step-3 Evaluation: this stage requires one of three decisions to be arrived at.

a) Identification (the latent print and exemplar came from the same source);

b) Exclusion (the latent print and exemplar did not come from the same source);

c) Inconclusive (one cannot determine that the latent print and exemplar came from
the same source, or not, to a sufficiently strong level of certainty).
Step-4 Verification: The final step in the process involves verification of the
examiner’s result.

• It requires an independent examination of the questioned and known prints by a

second examiner.

• Ultimately, a consensus between the two examiners must be arrived at before a

final conclusion is drawn.
A fingerprint exhibit illustrating the matching ridge characteristics between the
crime scene print and an inked impression of one of the suspect’s fingers.
The right index finger impression of person A on the left and afterward (he tried to destroy his
own fingerprints by applying a corrosive acid to them) on the right. Comparison is proved by
the 14 matching ridge characteristics.
 Automated Fingerprint Identification
Systems (AFIS)
• The AFIS uses automatic scanning devices that convert the image of a fingerprint
into digital minutiae that contain data showing ridges at their points of
termination (ridge endings) and the branching of ridges into two ridges
(bifurcations).

• The relative position and orientation of the minutiae are also determined,
allowing the computer to store each fingerprint in the form of a digitally recorded
geometric pattern.
A side-by-side comparison of a latent print against a file Live scan technology enables law
fingerprint is conducted in seconds, and their similarity enforcement to print and compare a
rating (SIM) is displayed on the upper-left portion of the subject’s fingerprints rapidly, without
screen. inking the fingerprints.
• The Indian Version of Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (AFIS) is called FACTS, which
was co-developed, by NCRB and CMC Ltd., India,
The current version of FACTS is 5.0.

• FACTS also stores non-fingerprint information or

demographic details like gender, region and
conviction details.

• At the Central Finger Print Bureau(CFPB) under

NCRB, all disputed Finger Prints are examined and
opinion given regarding their identity or otherwise.
References

• Saferstein, R. (2015). Criminalistics An Introduction to Forensic Science(11th Ed.)

• Aggrawal, A. (2017) Textbook of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

• The Fingerprint Sourcebook: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice

Programs, National Institute of Justice.

• Ashbaugh, D. R. (1999). Quantitative–Qualitative Friction Ridge Analysis: An

Introduction to Basic and Advanced Ridgeology; CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL.

• Cummins and Midlow (1943), Fingerprints Palms And Soles : An Introduction to

Dermatoglyphics, The Blakiston Office London.
THANK YOU