Learning Objectives
1
Summarize the history of fingerprinting
2
Explain the theory behind fingerprinting
3
Explain the principles of fingerprinting
4
Identify the various fingerprint patterns
Describe the methods used
5
to visualize fingerprints
1
Fingerprints
1000 BC, China
Used as signatures?
Chinese seal with
engraved name
2
Fingerprints
William Herschel
Late 19th century
Allowed illiterate people to sign
documents with their thumbprints
3
Fingerprints
Henry Faulds
1880
Fingerprints vary from person to person
Use of fingerprints to identify criminals?
Idea rejected by Scotland Yard
4
Fingerprints
Mark Twain, 1884
 Pudd nhead Wilson
5
Fingerprints
 Every human being carries with him from his cradle to
his grave certain physical marks which do not change
their character and by which he can always be
identified. And that without shade of doubt or question.
These marks are his signature, his physiological
autograph so to speak, and this autograph cannot be
counterfeited, nor can he disguise it or hide it in any way,
nor can it become illegible by the wear and mutation of
time.
 Pudd nhead Wilson, Mark Twain
6
Fingerprints
Francis Galton
1892
Classified different
marks in fingerprints
Sir Francis Galton
7
Fingerprints
Juan Vucetich, 1897
Classification
of fingerprints
Juan Vucetich
8
Fingerprints
Edward Henry, 1897
Proponent of
fingerprints
Sir Edward Richard Henry
9
Fingerprinting
First used in the U.K. in 1901
Used a few years later in the U.S.A.
First used by Juan Vucetich
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Argentina, 1892
Francesca Rojas children murdered
Neighbour Velasquez blamed
Interrogated by the police
Insisted on his innocence
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Argentina, 1892
Suspicion turned to Rojas No evidence
Juan Vucetich called in to help
Bloody fingerprint found at crime scene
Convicted
Matched Rojas
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Juan Vucetich
Wanted to set up a National fingerprint database
Fingerprint everyone in Argentina
Idea met with public opposition
Attempt failed
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Deptford, London, 1905
First capital case in the U.K. using fingerprinting
Walter & Ann Farrow found beaten to death
Killed by Alfred & Albert Stratton?
Eyewitnesses
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Eyewitness account
Henry Alfred Jennings
 I am a milk carrier. Looking at the
prisoners now, I am unable to say one way
or the other whether those are the men I
saw in High Street, Deptford.
Reasonable doubt
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Other evidence
Edward Henry
Commissioner of Police, London 1905
Checked crime scene for fingerprints
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Other evidence
Empty cash-box under the couple s bed
Should have Ł9
Motive for murder
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Other evidence
Empty cash-box under the couple s bed
1 thumbprint found Owner?
No match to either of the deceased
No match to police officers
Match to Alfred Stratton
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Trial
First capital case involving fingerprinting
Prosecution had to
Show fingerprint belonged to Alfred Stratton
Demonstrate that technique is reliable
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Trial
Reliability of fingerprinting?
Prosecution demonstrated reliability
by fingerprinting a member of the jury
Stratton brothers Guilty
20
Locard & Fingerprints
Lyon, 1920s
Mysterious burglaries
Valuable objects and objects of
no particular value were stolen
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Locard & Fingerprints
Fingerprints are not unique to humans
Burglaries done by a monkey
Where do you find a monkey in France?
Organ grinder
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Organ grinder with monkey
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Locard & Fingerprints
Rounded up organ grinders and their monkeys
Fingerprinted the monkeys
One matched those found
at one of the crime scenes
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