Midterm Essay

Midterm Essay -Fingerprints

CJ 328-01: Forensic Fingerprint Analysis

Unit 5 Assignment 2

Purdue University Global

Unit 5 Assignment 2

Part 1: Based upon your expertise in regards to fingerprint and friction-skin development, explain why the following conclusion regarding human cloning is false. Consider all data from fingerprints that have been collected, examined, compared, and put into databases.

After these last five weeks, the two main points about fingerprints is the uniqueness which is no one has the same fingerprints, even though it may be a set of identical twins the fingerprints will be different and that is the premise. The topic of cloning even though a clone can be designed to have the same design it will be totally unique and have its own characteristics. A persons’ fingerprints are formed inside the womb during the third to fourth month of pregnancy. With every fingerprint that has been collected over the past 1100 and more years there has never been a set that was an exact match to another set of prints. This is because each person has their own set of fingerprints (Yamashita, & French, 2011).

Part 2: Explain the principles and processes used in the analysis, comparison, evaluation, and verification of latent fingerprints.

A latent fingerprint is not seen with the naked eye. Fingerprints have unique patterns known as friction ridges and they are located on the fingertips. There is a scientific method called the ACE-V which simple means analyzing, comparing, evaluating and verifying. This method the first thing that is done is the analysis is done by an expert to test any part that may interfere with the friction patterns that are being questioned. Things that can affect this may be the object in which the print is on, the development part, pressure distortion and the elements on the outside such as blood and sweat. The number and kind of latent print ridges can have an effect on the examiners competence to conduct the next step.

After the analysis part then it will be determined if there is enough information to proceed with the comparing of the prints to a suspect’s prints. There may be a chance that the fingerprint image can have entirely to much ink on it or it may have been smudged and this would make it not be reliable. The next part is evaluating the end result of comparing and making a conclusion. The last part can be narrowed down to one of three options the first is two characteristics the latent print was made by the same finger of the suspect. Next if the latent characteristic was not made by any fingers that belong to the suspect. Lastly the end of comparing would not be accomplished and this is because there was not enough clarity or even the lack of area that should be compared to the suspect (Daluz, 2019). The last part is to verify, and this is simply establishing identity, and this is conducted by another examiner and it is a self-governing exam of fingerprint characteristic and this is how the ACE-V is conducted. After these steps have been completed then the print can be entered into the AFIS database.

Part 3: Define class characteristics and individual characteristics of latent fingerprints. Present one example of each and explain how your examples fit the definitions.

The characteristics that make up latent fingerprints are basic loops, whorls and arches. The loop is when the print recurves over itself and it forms a loop. The whorl characteristic is that it forms a circular pattern continually around itself. The arches can look like a wave pattern or similar to a tent (Lee, & Gaensslen, 2012). If a print is located with a loop it can be compared to other prints that have loops, but it cannot be narrowed down to the individual without using the individual characteristics such as friction ridges that are inside the loops. The different ridge characteristics are the ridge endings, the islands or the bifurcation placement. An example of characteristic of a loop pattern would be bifurcations, ridge endings and islands. An example of whorl characteristics would be if the whorl has a central pocket or a double loop.

An example of the arch would be the curve of the arch, the bifurcations, islands, along with the ridge endings which make them all different. Each of the characteristics of latent fingerprints are different and as we know no two people have the same fingerprints (Yamashita, & French, 2011). A class characteristic could belong to more than one person, whereas an individual characteristic belongs to one person.

Part 4: Examine the print titled “young Print’ found in doc sharing. How many bifurcations do you see, if any? How many islands do you see? Ridge endings? Based on the number of bifurcations, islands, and ridges found, is this fingerprint of high enough quality to be used to find a match?

I located 25 bifurcations on the young print. I could make out 5 islands. I saw 25 ridge endings. After locating these characteristics, I do not think that it is a match because the ridge endings were not very clear, I saw some parts that were similar to islands, but they may have been ridge endings and the image was a little bit blurry.

References

Daluz, H. M. (2019). Fundamentals of fingerprint analysis. (2nd ed). Boca Raton, FL:

CRC Press.

This is a credible source because it is a textbook used to teach criminal justice classes.

Lee, H. C., & Gaensslen, R. E. (2012). Advances in fingerprint technology. (3rd ed).

Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

This is a credible source because it is a textbook that is used to teach criminal justice classes.

Yamashita,B., & French, M. (2011). The fingerprint sourcebook. Retrieved from:

http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij225327.pdf

This is a credible source because it is a government website.