Fingerprints And Other Impressions

Abstract

This chapter is about fingerprints and impression evidence. When AFIS systems first came out, single fingerprints from crime scenes had to be enlarged and then the major ridges traced so they would be of high enough quality for the computers to scan them for searching. An example of misinterpretation of a fingerprint can be found in one of the case studies at end of the chapter. It is reasonable to conclude that there are more potential footwear impressions at crime scenes than there are fingerprint impressions. Tire impressions are similar to footwear impressions in some respects. However, tire impressions are usually much larger than footwear impressions, making them more difficult to collect and match to the tire. With footwear impressions, dental stone casts of three-dimensional impressions are nearly always superior to photographs for comparison with known shoes. In addition to tread patterns and wear details, tire tread impressions can be used to derive other information about the tire and vehicle.