Lee H.C., Gaensslen R.E. (eds.) Advances in Fingerprint Technology

CRC Press, 2001, -425 p.The first edition of this book was published as a volume in the Elsevier Series in Forensic and Police Science. Elsevier’s book business has since been acquired by CRC Press LLC and CRC has supported and extended their forensic science program. We thank CRC for the opportunity to revise Advances in Fingerprint Technology to this second edition.
Fingerprints is an area in which there have been many new and exciting developments in the past two decades or so, although advances in DNA typing have tended to dominate both the forensic science literature and popular information about advances in forensic sciences. Particularly in the realm of methods for developing latent prints, but also in the growth of imaging and AFIS technologies, fingerprint science has seen extraordinary breakthroughs because creative applications of principles derived from physics and organic chemistry have been applied to it.
Fingerprints constitute one of the most important categories of physical evidence. They are among the few that can be truly individualized. Fingerprint individuality is widely accepted by scientists and the courts alike. Lately there have been some modest challenges to whether a firm scientific basis exists for fingerprint individuality, based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1993 Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. decision [113 S.Ct. 2786 (1993)] in which new standards for the admissibility of scientific evidence were articulated for the first time. The issues underlying these challenges are treated in Chapters 9 and
10. A perspective on the history and development of fingerprinting and the fundamentals of latent print identification are treated in Chapters 1 and 2, revised from the first edition. Latent fingerprint residue chemistry, on which every latent print detection technique is ultimately based, is covered in detail in a new Chapter
3. Chapter 4, the survey of latent print development methods and techniques, has been revised and updated. Chapter 5 on ninydrin analogues has been revised and updated. New chapters on physical developers (Chapter 7) and photoluminescent nanoparticles (Chapter 6) are added. AFIS system technology and fingerprint imaging are now widespread and may be considered mature. They are covered in a new Chapter 8.History and Development of Fingerprinting
Identification of Latent Prints
Composition of Latent Print Residue
Methods of Latent Fingerprint Development
Fingerprint Development by Ninhydrin and Its Analogues
Fingerprint Detection with Photoluminescent Nanoparticles
Silver Physical Development of Latent Prints
Automated Fingerprint Identification and Imaging Systems
Measurement of Fingerprint Individuality
The Expert Fingerprint Witness