Chosen Forensic Area: Fingerprints Tues 2nd Dec.
TOPIC: Assessment of the methodology for estimating ridge density in fingerprints and its forensic application.
SUMMARY:
In the scope of forensic science, fingerprints have been used for personal identification for over a century. Dermal papillae ridges remain essentially unchanged throughout the lifetime of the individual. In this research analysis, fingerprints were obtained by rolling the finger onto a surface (a “rolled” fingerprint) while in others, the finger was pressed down onto a flat surface (a “plain” fingerprint). When comparing the counting areas between rolled and plain fingerprints, in the core region, the rolled fingerprints presented, for all fingers and for both sexes, a higher ridge density (RD) than the corresponding plain fingerprints do. Similarly, in the outer location, the rolled fingerprints showed a higher RD than the plain ones did.
Thumbs presented a higher RD than that of the other fingers, in both sexes. In both rolled and plain fingerprints, females showed a statistically significantly higher RD than males in all fingers. For both hands and sexes, rolled fingerprints presented a higher ridge count than plain ones, especially in the middle, ring, and little fingers. In all cases, the sex difference is at least one ridge, sometimes reaching up to a difference of almost three ridges between male and female RD, as is exhibited by the rolled radial core fingerprints. The two methods of obtaining fingerprints (rolled and plain) was compared and the differences assessed in ridge density in five different areas of the dactylogram. This allowed the differences in ridge density to be highlighted, depending on how the fingerprint was obtained and where the counting area was placed. The differences found between the ulnar and radial sides, for both the core and outer areas, were considerably lower in plain prints compared to rolled prints. In the rolled prints, the radial and ulnar areas significantly differed in almost all the fingers. This