Scenario: The suspect’s fingerprint was found on the murder weapon that was used to cause the death of the victim. It could be a bloody knife that was found in the back seat of the suspect’s car or it might be a bloody fingerprint in the victim’s blood found on the 357 Magnum that was found underneath the bed of the suspect. Great physical evidence, but forensically, what does all this mean and why is finding a person’s fingerprint patterns on physical evidence so important in connecting a suspect to a victim at the crime scene. Got your attention yet?

This audio explains why fingerprint evidence is considered to be the only totally individual physical evidence in the entire Forensic Crime Laboratory analyses. By describing how the different patterns of Arches, Loops, and Whorls are combined together with bifurcations, dots, and enclosures to show how an individual’s fingerprint pattern are determined, you will realize why no two people have ever been shown to have the same fingerprint patterns. A high profile case is discussed to illustrate a criminal case where a set of twins were alleged to be involved in the same sexual assault case and how fingerprint analysis was utilized to pinpoint the guilty individual.

The powder and chemical techniques used to develop latent prints and partial prints left at the crime scene such as black powders, bi-chromatic powders, amido black for bloody prints, ninhydrin for paper products, and a technique that is considered to be one of the best techniques ever developed, super glue or cyanoacrylate fuming, will all be discussed in detail using actual cases to enhance the understanding of each method. The Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS and IAFIS) are evaluated to show how instrumental they are in helping to solve cold cases and in helping to identify dangerous criminals when they are detained in routine stops by Police Officers. This audio will allow you to find out all the information that you wanted to ask about those squiggly lines on your fingers and palms but were afraid to ask!