The identification of individuals through the unique, stable ridge patterns of the fingertips. Francis Galton established that fingerprint patterns are unique and stable over a lifetime, and Edward Henry developed a system for classifying and searching them that police forces worldwide adopted.
Facts
What It ExaminesFriction ridge patterns of the fingers and palms, compared between a known print and a latent print recovered from a scene to establish or exclude identity. 1 Formalized YearSourced to the subject's own account Known LimitationA 2011 black-box study of 169 trained latent-print examiners comparing 744 print pairs measured a false positive rate (wrongly declaring two different fingers a match) of about 0.1 percent and a false negative rate (missing a genuine match) of about 7.5 percent, the first large-scale empirical measurement of examiner accuracy under conditions resembling casework; the finding is cited both to support the discipline',s general reliability and, by critics, to note that the claimed certainty of a match is not literally zero-error. 3 Known LimitationThe 2009 National Academy of Sciences report found that latent print identification rests on examiner judgment, that claims of infallibility were unsupported, and that its methods had not been validated by adequate statistical research. 4 Cross-Tradition Connections
Cases Where Used
The first criminal conviction in the world secured by fingerprint evidence.
Richard Ramirez was identified through a fingerprint match run against California's new statewide automated fingerprint identification system.
Pioneered By
Sources
Frequently Asked Questions
Are fingerprint matches ever wrong?
Rarely, but not never. A 2011 study had 169 trained examiners compare 744 pairs of prints under conditions resembling real casework; five examiners made a false positive, wrongly declaring a match, for an overall false positive rate of about 0.1 percent, while the false negative rate, missing a genuine match, was higher, about 7.5 percent. The finding is cited both to support the discipline's general reliability and, by critics, to note that the traditional claim of absolute certainty is not literally accurate.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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