The World of Prints and Impressions History Chinese

The World of Prints and Impressions

History • Chinese, 3000 years ago, fingerprints on legal documents • 8 th Century Japan-Legal Documents • 14 th Century Persia-Government Papers • Ancient Rome-Bloody handprint linked to killer • William Herschel 1800 s (English civil servant working in India) required Indians “sign” documents with fingerprint. • Henry Fauld 1800 s (Scottish physician) Fingerprints important in criminal investigations

History • Francis Galton (1892) Published “Fingerprints”-Science of Fingerprints • Bertillon System supplemented with prints • Sir Richard Henry (1897)-Developed classification system and means of accusation and filing. • Bertillon System ditched with William West Case (1903)-Fingerprints used in U. S. Prisons

Flawed Bertillon System

Flawed Bertillon System

History • 1900 s fingerprints used on civil service applications • Mid 1900 s used by police forces

What is a fingerprint?

Latent Prints=Invisible Prints When you touch something, you leave perspiration, oils, amino acids

Skin Ridge Purpose

Skin Ridge Purpose • Provide Firm Grasp • Resist slippage of feet

Principles of Fingerprints in Forensics 1. No two people have the same prints (millions of prints collected over 90 years) 2. Fingerprints are genetic, develop as fetus and remain the same for life and sometime after death 3. Fingerprints have patterns that allow systematic classification

Ridge types 65% 5% 30% 150 Individual ridge characteristics/ fingerprint

Minutia=Ridge Characteristics

Sub classifications

Can You Change Fingerprints?

Can You Change Fingerprints? • Not all patterns on hand! • Needs wound down 2 millimeters into skin • Much scaring making you more individualistic

John Dillinger SCAR TISSUE Before Acid After Acid

Henry System of Classification R. Index R. Ring R. Thumb R. Middle L. Thumb L. Middle L. Little R. Little L. Index L. Ring • Step 1: Set up these fractions • Step 2: Whirls 1 st Column fingers=16 2 nd Column Fingers= 8 3 rd Column Fingers= 4 4 th Column Fingers= 2 5 th Column Fingers= 1 • Step 3: Tally Numbers

Henry System of Classification • Example – Suppose right index is whorl – Suppose right middle is whorl – All others are loops 16+0+0+1 = 17 0+8+0+0+0+1 = 9

Fingerprint Collection-Ink

Fingerprinting-Digital AFIS Search Speed= Minutes to search millions of prints

Fingerprints and Crimes • Visible Prints – Blood – Paint – Grease – Ink • Plastic prints – Impressions in putty, wax, soap dust • Latent Prints – Hard-to-see remnants of perspiration and oils

Latent Fingerprint Development • If hard, nonabsorbent surface ex. Glass, tile etc – Fingerprint powders – Soft brush – Powder sticks to perspiration

Latent Fingerprint Development • If soft, absorbent surface (ex. Paper, cloth) – Iodine crystal fuming – Crystal undergo sublimation – Not permanent development – Gold-brown development – Mech. Unknown

Latent Fingerprint Development • If soft absorbent surface – Ninhydrine Spray – Reacts with amino acids in perspiration to produce purple development

Latent Fingerprint Development • Nonporous surfaces (metals, tape, leather, plastic bags • Super Glue Fuming – Cyanoacrylate fumes – Produces white print

Latent Fingerprint Development • Lasers and Fluorescence – Natural fluorescent components in sweat that can be enhanced with chemicals and observed with laser light

Latent Fingerprint Development • Alternate light source ( quartz halogen, xenon) – Focused light along fiber optic cables

Preservation of prints

Preservation of prints • Lifting Prints

Footnote “Cancer patient held at airport for missing fingerprint” (Reuters News Service) • Side-effect of cancer drug • palms or soles of the feet and the skin can peel, bleed and develop ulcers or blisters -- or what is known as hand-foot syndrome

Lip Prints • Lip print lands Peeping Tom in jail The Associated Press • NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) - This peeper's pucker landed him in jail. • Robert Neal Smith, 41, was sentenced to five months in jail Friday after pleading guilty to peeping into his neighbor's windows. He was charged with five counts of being a Peeping Tom after his lip prints matched ones left on a window in August. • Police had lifted the impression in September and obtained a search warrant for Smith's lip marks. The state crime lab claimed the two were a match. • Smith told the General District Court judge he was drinking heavily when he peeped into his neighbors' homes. At one point he was chased by a woman's husband another woman caught him tampering with her window screen.

Lip Prints • The five basic types of lip prints used by forensic scientists are:

Lip Prints • Cheiloscopy=study of lip prints • Ancient Egyptians used henna to paint lips a reddish purple hue • Used mercuric plant dye called fucus for lip rouge • Can extract DNA from lip prints • Lipsticks appeared first in the city of Ur near Babylon 5000 years ago • Lipstick first mass produced in tubes in 1915 • Differences found between man and women lip prints

Foot Prints

Feet Most of the time they are impressions of feet and not prints

Shoe Impressions • What can we tell? – Shoe type – Shoe size – Show wear patterns

Wear Patterns - Toe or heal walker activity of wearer - Body Weight surface they walk on - Walk with feet inwards or outwards unique holes/cuts/debris in shoe -

What material can shoe impressions be left in?

Locating Shoe Prints Often found near: - The actual point of occurrence of the crime - The route through the points of entry/exit & the crime scene - Exterior areas

How common are Shoe Prints? Combination of floor surface and condition of footwear determines likelihood of a foot print.

Likelihood of a Shoe Print

Shoe Impressions • Can leave impressions in dust • Photograph • Electrostatic lift – Overlay dust with mylar film sheet

Shoe Impressions • Can leave impressions in soil • Photograph • Make a cast with dental stone

Shoe Impressions • Can leave shoeprint in snow • Photograph • Spray with 3 coats of Snow-Print Wax • Cast with Dental Stone

Tire Impression • What can we tell? – Tread style=tire model – Tread width=tire model – Distance of left tires from right tires (Track Width) – Manufacturer of tire and make and year of vehicle

Teeth Impressions • Can be left in food, gum and skin

Teeth Impressions • Connect suspect to bite mark: