![]() Systems for the classification of fingerprints had been developed during the 19th century by several investigators. The process of 'matching' individuals and things to a crime scene that grew from fingerprint analysis is still the basis of much of forensic science. But it is perhaps the first sign of recognition that a person's fingerprints are unique to that person - something that is still considered to be true today and forms one of the foundations of individual identification. As far as is known this was a simple and informal classification of the fingerprints, rather like a signature. The Chinese also used thumbprints on legal documents and on criminal confessions. Thousands of years ago the Chinese and Assyrian people used fingerprints to establish the identity of clay artefacts, and later on documents, by labelling them with a unique and identifiable mark - the finger (or thumb) print. Perhaps the earliest recorded examples of what might today be cited as the forerunners of forensic science appeared in ancient China and Assyria. However, these problems and errors do need to be put in the context of the outstanding history of success in using fingerprints in individualisation. You will learn that fingerprint evidence is usually very sound and is one of the most reliable forms of identification, though there are challenges to its use and human errors can be made. As the main method of establishing identity from traces left at crime scenes, fingerprint matching is currently presented in court in the UK five times more often than is DNA matching. ![]() The use of fingerprints in the identification of criminals is the most frequently applied technique in forensic science. Individualisation is the process of unambiguously connecting a single individual or object to a crime scene. This OpenLearn course provides a sample of level 1 study in Science Assuming that a successful match is found, fingerprint evidence can then be used in an attempt at individualisation. The fingerprints can then be photographed, ready to be compared by experts with a database of fingerprints or with fingerprints taken from a suspect. The second uses light, and other types of electromagnetic radiation, to interact with the fingerprints and make them visible. The first is the use of chemical change that is, the transformation of one substance into another, in this case often accompanied by a colour change. Visible fingerprints can be photographed conventionally but an important scientific problem is how to make 'latent' fingerprints, which are not visible to the naked eye, available for examination. ![]() This course covers how science can make fingerprints easier to study, how they are used in court and some of the questions about the extent to which fingerprint identification is sound and scientific. Forensic science and fingerprints Introduction
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