Forensic Fingerprint Analysis

Assignment : Midterm Essay

Use the concepts and the material from the class regarding the science of fingerprints to write a 2–4-page paper answering the following three questions:

1.       Part 1 - Based upon your expertise in regards to fingerprint and friction-skin development, explain why the following conclusion regarding human cloning is false. Consider all data from fingerprints that have been collected, examined, compared, and put into databases.

Premise: The proven fact that identical twins do not have the same fingerprints has been accepted. However, human clones present a different set of friction skin development issues.

Conclusion: The clone, being directly derived from the host, would indeed have the same fingerprints. That is, the ridge events in a unit formation of the host and the clone would correspond.

2.       Part 2 - Explain the principles and processes used in the analysis, comparison, evaluation, and verification of latent fingerprints.

3.       Part 3 - Define class characteristics and individual characteristics of latent fingerprints. Present one example of each and explain how your examples fit the definitions.

4.       Part 4 - Examine the print titled “Young Print” found in Doc Sharing. How many bifurcations do see, if any? How many islands do you see? Ridge endings? Based on the number of bifurcations, islands, and ridges found, is this fingerprint of high enough quality to be used to find a match?