The consideration of fingerprint probabilities in the courtroom

Abstract

Recent criticisms and challenges to fingerprint evidence in the United States have prompted fingerprint examiners to reconsider the notion of using probabilities in the courtroom. A growing number of examiners are interested in learning more about this approach, but there is still considerable inertia and fear with respect to this paradigm shift. The present paper provides the author’s viewpoints on why the community can and should be moving in this direction. These viewpoints were shaped through personal experiences as a case-working fingerprint examiner, an instructor of other examiners, and the author’s participation in a moot court exercise that delivered fingerprint probabilities to non-forensic laypersons acting as mock jurors.