Identification Of A Suspect Through Two Means Of Scientific Analysis

4 Pages 985 Words

Because of discoveries in recent years and technological advances, the ability for Crime Scene Investigators to examine material found at crime scenes has exponentially increased. The main point of a Crime Scene Investigator is to be able to link a suspect to a crime scene, eventually arresting him as the perpetrator. Because of Locard’s Exchange Principle, the theory that anyone entering a crime scene leaves or takes something, Crime Scene Investigators have the hard job of having to find evidence, be it visible or latent. While collecting evidence, two of the greatest identification factors in narrowing down a search to a person responsible for law-breaking acts are fingerprint analysis and hair identification.
Fingerprint evidence and eventually fingerprint analysis is the single greatest identification factor of a criminal to a crime scene. A fingerprint is an individual characteristic, and there are three fundamental principles of fingerprints: It is yet to be found that prints taken from different individuals possess identical ridge characteristics, a fingerprint will remain unchanged during an individual’s lifetime, and fingerprints have general characteristic ridge patterns that permit them to be systematically classified. The individuality of any fingerprint is based not upon the general shape or pattern that it forms, but instead upon its ridge structure and specific characteristics, which is also known as minutiae. The recognition of these ridges, their relative number, and the approximate location of them on the observed print are the special characteristics that make the fingerprint a specific identifying characteristic of each individual. On average there are at least 150 individual characteristics on the average fingerprint, and if there are between 10 and 16 specific points of references for any two corresponding fingerprints, a positive identification of a suspect is able to be made. A ridge characteristic...