Challenges to Fingerprints

This book is the culmination of years of research. The authors have meticulously researched the field of fingerprint comparisons and now offer you an in-depth look at the reliability of this science. They cover topics such as forensic individualization, the ACE method, Automated Fingerprint Search, certification, error rates, contamination, training, and court challenges to fingerprints, among others.

Beginning with a brief background into fingerprints, Ralph and Lyn Haber explain, in lay terms, the science behind forensic fingerprint comparison, and how exactly reliable is a fingerprint identification. They then take a more in-depth look into fingerprints and their use, including fingerprint comparison. A practice that has existed for over 100 years, fingerprint comparison has a very limited amount of research on error rates. This book helps fill that gap.

If you are a trial attorney, investigator, or any professional working with fingerprint data, you need this book's expertise on this pervasive--yet inadequately examined--subject. You benefit from over a decade of thorough research into fingerprint comparison, including the authors' conference presentations, expert witness retainment, training courses, journal articles, television interviews, and more. Buy your copy today!

Topics Include:

Fingerprint evidence

Fingerprint comparisons

Fingerprint examiners

Fingerprint comparison methodology

Fingerprint individuation

Friction ridge skin on fingers

Exemplar fingerprints

Latent fingerprints

Ridge flow patterns

Galton feature descriptions

Ridges-in-sequence description

Finding and lifting latent prints

Print value and quality

Crime scene latent print documentation

Crime lab processing and documentation of latent fingerprints

Examiner proficiency and certification testing

Erroneous identification rates

Contamination

Regulatory standards

Court challenges