Finger Impression Research Articles

Fingerprint Evidence in England and Wales – The Revised Standard

Evidence of personal identity, often based solely on the comparison of a single finger impression, or fragment of an impression, has been accepted by courts of law at all levels in England and Wales since 1901, when the fingerprint system of identification was first adopted by police forces. Fingerprint identification is used by police forces world-wide, not only for the identification of latent fingermarks left at crime scenes, but also as the basis for ensuring accuracy in the criminal record system. For more than a century fingerprint evidence has been shown without doubt to be the best form of personal identification yet devised and millions of comparisons and subsequent identifications have been effected world-wide without any flaw in the system having been detected. From 1953-2001 it was the usual practice in England and Wales for the police to proffer fingerprint evidence showing 16 common matching characteristics, or features in agreement, between the two impressions being compared. In 1996 the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) commissioned a review of the existing methods of presenting fingerprint evidence before the courts and on 11 June 2001 a new standard of fingerprint evidence was adopted by the police forces of England and Wales. This paper describes how the new standard was developed and implemented and why it was considered necessary to move away from the existing 16-point standard.

Measuring the effect of a hygiene behaviour intervention by indicators of behaviour and diarrhoeal disease

A social marketing approach used both qualitative and quantitative methods to develop a hygiene behaviour intervention in rural north-east Thailand. Behaviours were preselected from a previous study and the intervention was designed to promote hand washing, especially before feeding a baby, cooking, eating, and after defaecation or cleaning a baby's bottom, and dish washing immediately after eating. A bacteriological indicator (enumerating faecal streptococci using a finger impression technique) was developed to measure changes in hand washing behaviour and observation (spot checks) of dirty dishes to indicate dish washing practice. There was a significant improvement in both behaviours and a significant reduction in diarrhoeal disease as a result of the intervention. Furthermore, both indicators were retrospectively found to be positively related to diarrhoeal disease incidence. However, receiving and being able to recall the intervention messages was not necessarily sufficient to ensure behaviour change, as some adults found it difficult to change old habits. Villages showing the greatest improvement tended to have a stronger sense of community than others and to have more people actively involved in the intervention.

Some practical aspects of surgical skin preparation

I N THE NINETY-EIGHT YEARS since Lister introduced the concept of antisepsis, surgeons have been unabIe to evolve any uniform method of surgical skin preparation. In keeping with their individualistic nature, each has his own ritual of preparation and the belief that he is pecuIiarIy cIean. The effectiveness of mechanical scrubbing in removal of skin bacteria has been demonstrated and remains generally accepted. A long series of antiseptic agents have been enthusiastically introduced, investigated, and for the most part discarded. OnIy 70 per cent alcohol, Zephiran,@ hexachlorophene preparations, and iodophors remain in general use. Rubber gloves are used universally because of inability to attain adequate degermation but they are subject to frequent puncture. In spite of this continuing diIemma, Iittle effort has been directed toward the study of the characteristics of the skin flora which we are attempting to remove and contro1. In 1938, Price [I] divided aerobic skin flora into transient and resident populations and noted that the size of the resident flora and its rate of removal by scrubbing were characteristic for each individual person. He also pointed out [2] that this size varied widely from one person to another and that it was not predictable on the basis of age, sex or complexion. On the basis of a few experiments [I,?], a pattern for regrowth of skin flora folIowing surgical degermation was proposed. This early curve suggested slow muItiplication during the first two or three days folIowing a surgical scrub, an observation that has led some to a false sense of security during the immediate postoperative period onIy. More recently has the prompt initiation of a rapid rate of floral regeneration been appreciated [4,3]. Although the detrimenta effect of increased bacterial multiplication under gown and gloves has been mentioned by many authors [6-101, only Price [I], on the basis of two serial basin experiments, and Dull et al. [ r~], using single basin washings, gave any information as to the actual magnitude of that factor. Price demonstrated an eightfold increase in bacterial count in approximately three hours while Dull reported from twenty-nine subjects an average increase of 28 to 79 per cent of prescrub levels during a two hour period. Other technics such as finger impression, gIove culture and skin swabs have provided corroborative evidence of considerable regrowth. These studies, however, as well as investigations of the chemica1 control of regrowth under gIoves [12-131, usuaIIy test either smaIl areas of skin or measure the exfoliated bacteria shed into gloves, and have yielded variable results. Improper use of drugs antidotes to neutralize antiseptic agents in culture has also Ied to many false interpretations of drug effectiveness. None of the studies gives direct insight into the actuaI changes occurring in the bacterial popuIation on the skin. The individua1 variations in the size of the skin flora, its rate of regrowth following degermation, the effect of gown and gloves on bacterial multiplication, and the controI of

Some practical aspects of surgical skin preparation

I N THE NINETY-EIGHT YEARS since Lister introduced the concept of antisepsis, surgeons have been unabIe to evolve any uniform method of surgical skin preparation. In keeping with their individualistic nature, each has his own ritual of preparation and the belief that he is pecuIiarIy cIean. The effectiveness of mechanical scrubbing in removal of skin bacteria has been demonstrated and remains generally accepted. A long series of antiseptic agents have been enthusiastically introduced, investigated, and for the most part discarded. OnIy 70 per cent alcohol, Zephiran,@ hexachlorophene preparations, and iodophors remain in general use. Rubber gloves are used universally because of inability to attain adequate degermation but they are subject to frequent puncture. In spite of this continuing diIemma, Iittle effort has been directed toward the study of the characteristics of the skin flora which we are attempting to remove and contro1. In 1938, Price [I] divided aerobic skin flora into transient and resident populations and noted that the size of the resident flora and its rate of removal by scrubbing were characteristic for each individual person. He also pointed out [2] that this size varied widely from one person to another and that it was not predictable on the basis of age, sex or complexion. On the basis of a few experiments [I,?], a pattern for regrowth of skin flora folIowing surgical degermation was proposed. This early curve suggested slow muItiplication during the first two or three days folIowing a surgical scrub, an observation that has led some to a false sense of security during the immediate postoperative period onIy. More recently has the prompt initiation of a rapid rate of floral regeneration been appreciated [4,3]. Although the detrimenta effect of increased bacterial multiplication under gown and gloves has been mentioned by many authors [6-101, only Price [I], on the basis of two serial basin experiments, and Dull et al. [ r~], using single basin washings, gave any information as to the actual magnitude of that factor. Price demonstrated an eightfold increase in bacterial count in approximately three hours while Dull reported from twenty-nine subjects an average increase of 28 to 79 per cent of prescrub levels during a two hour period. Other technics such as finger impression, gIove culture and skin swabs have provided corroborative evidence of considerable regrowth. These studies, however, as well as investigations of the chemica1 control of regrowth under gIoves [12-131, usuaIIy test either smaIl areas of skin or measure the exfoliated bacteria shed into gloves, and have yielded variable results. Improper use of drugs antidotes to neutralize antiseptic agents in culture has also Ied to many false interpretations of drug effectiveness. None of the studies gives direct insight into the actuaI changes occurring in the bacterial popuIation on the skin. The individua1 variations in the size of the skin flora, its rate of regrowth following degermation, the effect of gown and gloves on bacterial multiplication, and the controI of