Personal identification through fingerprints Prof. Surinder Nath

includes preface and suggested readings

Fingerprints have been the gold standard for personal identification within the forensic community for more than one
hundred years. Fingerprints and finger marks combine to provide the most powerful means of personal identification
available to police and courts. The basic patterns of fingerprints are loops, whorls and arches that can be found in
fingerprints. The standard methodology used by fingerprint experts to conduct friction ridge examinations is called
ACE-V, for analysis, comparison, evaluation, and verification, which are the four fundamental phases utilized in this
process. The recovered prints can be manually compared with known antemortem records or searched through an
automated fingerprint system (AFIS) in order to verify or establish identity.