THE STUDY OF FINGERPRINT AND ITS PRINCIPLES
The FINGERPRINT is an impression made by the papillary ridges on the ends of the fingers and thumbs. Fingerprints afford an infallible means of personal identification because the ridge arrangement on every finger of every human being is unique and does not alter with growth or age. Fingerprints serve to reveal an individual’s true identity despite personal denial, assumed names, or changes in personal appearance resulting from age, disease, plastic surgery, or accident.
FINGERPRINT is a positive and absolute means of identification. The use of fingerprints as an infallible means of identification is based on three Dogmatic Principles;
- PRINCIPLES OF CONSTANCY – the papillary ridges are immutable, perennial, and individual from the third month of the embryonic period of a person until decomposition sets in after death. The fingerprints of a man have been noted by scientists to appear at the beginning of the 3rd-month embryonic period (10.5 weeks) while the child is still in the mother’s womb and it never changes until decomposition sets in after death. Most man, do not know they carry with him identification from his cradle up to his graves. (Read Chapter 3 of Fingerprint Sourcebook) This is the 2nd Principle in the book of Richard Saferstein, Criminalistics, An Introduction to Forensic Science; "A FINGERPRINT WILL REMAIN UNCHANGED DURING AN INDIVIDUAL'S LIFETIME.
- PRINCIPLES OF VARIATIONS - no two fingerprints of a different person or the neighboring finger of the same person have ever been found to be identical or exactly alike in all respects, and it has been studied and proven that ridges appearing in fingerprints of man wherein it has been used as an infallible means of identification. Sir Francis Galton in 1892 concluded the theory that the chance of two people to possess identical fingerprints is one in 64 Billion persons. This is the First Principle in the book of Richard Saferstein, Criminalistics, An Introduction to Forensic Science; "A FINGERPRINT IS AN INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS; NO TWO FINGERS HAVE YET BEEN FOUND TO POSSES IDENTICAL RIDGE CHARACTERISTICS.
- PRINCIPLES OF INFALLIBILITY - man’s fingerprints cannot be forged. Criminals have tried to destroy their fingerprints in an effort to fool Justice, even if they cut his finger with a razor, or knife, time brought a new ridge to the surface. True, there were scars in the lower layer of the skin, but the patterns were so distinct that when classifying will show positive identification of the criminal. Richard Saferstein in his book (3rd Principle) FINGERPRINT HAVE GENERAL RIDGE PATTERNS THAT PERMIT THEM TO BE SYSTEMATICALLY CLASSIFIED.
“The fingerprint of man Is GOD architectural design and no expert in the world could equal the making our GOD the Creator.” BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SKIN PATTERN
FRICTION SKIN - is the epidermal hairless skin found on the central lower surface of the hands and feet covered with minute ridges and furrows and without pigment or coloring matter.
It has five(5) fundamental layers, such as:
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- Corneous Layer
- Transparent Layer
- Granular Layer
- Malpighian Layer
- Generating Layer
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Friction skin has two (2) component parts:
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- THE RIDGE
- THE FURROWS
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RIDGES are the tiny elevation or hill-like structures found on the epidermis of the skin containing sweat pores. They appear as black lines with tiny white dots called pores in inked fingerprint impressions.
FURROWS are the tiny depressions or canals between ridges and which appear as white lines in an inked impression.
The epidermis consists of two main layers, namely,
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- The stratum corneum - which cover the surface
- The stratum mucosum - which is just beneath the covering of the skin.
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Importance of Sweat Glands – it supplies the sweat without which the surface or the skin would break. This sweat act as lubricants of the skin.
Purpose of Friction Skin
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- For personal protection
- For prevention of slipping or skidding
- For the sense of touch
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IMPORTANT TECHNICAL TERMS USED IN THIS STUDY
- DACTYLOGRAPHY – This is the science that deals with the study of fingerprints as a means of identification.
- DACTYLOSCOPY – is the study of the classification of fingerprints.
- FINGERPRINT – is the reproduction of the impression formed by the ridges on the inside end joint of a finger or thumb through the medium of ink, sweat, or any ingredient capable of producing visibility.
- RIDGE CHARACTERS – are the detail of the ridge structure, formation and elements which differentiate one fingerprint from another.
- PHALANGE – is the end joint of a finger.
- CREASE – straight and narrow white lines in the fingerprint pattern.
- INCIPIENT RIDGE – are malformed, thin, short, or broken ridge.
- RIDGE DOT – a dot is exactly what the word implies.
- SHORT RIDGE – a short ridge simply characterizes what the word implies.
- ENDING RIDGE – a ridge that runs along and stops abruptly.
- RIDGE ISLET - (island, lake) a ridge that bifurcates then converges forming an island.
- RIDGE BIFURCATION – one single ridge that splits or forks into two or more ridge.
- RIDGE CONVERGENCE – are two ridges that run parallel or nearly.
- DELTA - is a part of the ridge located at or in front of the divergence of typelines.
- CORE - is the approximate center of the fingerprint pattern.
- SUFFICIENT RECURVE:
- The recurve must be free from any appendage.
- The recurve must be continuous net broken
- The recurve must terminate the same side it came from
- PATTERN AREA – is the part of a loop or whorl in, which appear the cores, delta, and ridges with which we are concerned in classifying.
- TYPELINE - are the two innermost ridges that start parallel or almost parallel, diverge, surround or tend to surround the pattern area.
- APPENDAGE - a short ridges which run into the top of the recurve.
- DIVERGING RIDGES - is the spreading of a part of two ridges that have been running parallel or nearly parallel.
- RIDGE COUNT - is the enumeration of ridges entering the core and delta.
ILLUSTRATION THROUGH SLIDER BELOW WILL GIVE YOU A CLEAR IDEA OF THE ABOVE TERMS
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- The first slider is all about pattern recognition, ridge characteristics in loops (and the ulnar and radial loops) such as pattern areas and the typelines, and the rules governing core and delta and ridge counting.
- The second is all about whorl and how to trace it and the last slider is all about arches.
SO YOU ARE NOW BASICALLY EQUIPPED WITH KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE THREE PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE SCIENCE OF FINGERPRINT
You are also equipped with talent and skills about what are the three major fingerprint patterns and what are ridges and their characteristics needed in both identification and classification.
YOU MAY NOW PROCEED WITH THE EVALUATION EXAMINATION IF YOU THINK YOU ARE READY!
GOOD LUCK!
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