Fingermark age determinations: Legal considerations, review of the literature and practical propositions

Abstract

The question of the age of fingermarks is often raised in investigations and trials when suspects admit that they have left their fingermarks at a crime scene but allege that the contact occurred at a different time than the crime and for legal reasons. In the first part of this review article, examples from American appellate court cases will be used to demonstrate that there is a lack of consensus among American courts regarding the admissibility and weight of testimony from expert witnesses who provide opinions about the age of fingermarks. Of course, these issues are not only encountered in America but have also been reported elsewhere, for example in Europe. The disparity in the way fingermark dating cases were managed in these examples is probably due to the fact that no methodology has been validated and accepted by the forensic science community so far. The second part of this review article summarizes the studies reported on fingermark dating in the literature and highlights the fact that most proposed methodologies still suffer from limitations preventing their use in practice. Nevertheless, several approaches based on the evolution of aging parameters detected in fingermark residue over time appear to show promise for the fingermark dating field. Based on these approaches, the definition of a formal methodological framework for fingermark dating cases is proposed in order to produce relevant temporal information. This framework identifies which type of information could and should be obtained about fingermark aging and what developments are still required to scientifically address dating issues.

Ridge Width Correlations between Inked Prints and Powdered Latent Fingerprints

“…As with previous research , the area for ridge width measurements was 1 cm 2 of the center of each fingerprint image, corresponding to the core of the deposition at a resolution of 3,000 ppi. The selected area was positioned in the same exact location for every fingerprint analyzed.…”

“…KEYWORDS: forensic science, tenprint, ridge width, titanium dioxide, latent fingerprint, aging As a latent fingerprint ages, substantial visual (1) and chemical changes occur (2) that have an effect on the ridge morphology (3,4). The technique known as morphometrics has proven useful in discerning differences between men and women with respect to both the ridge density (5)(6)(7) and in the distribution of minutiae (8,9).…”

“…The focus of this report is the examination of pre‐existing fingerprint samples collected on previous research and is not intended to represent a population study that draws general correlations between ridge width measurements in inked and latent prints. Future investigations will explore the feasibility of using ridge width measurements as a function of time for aging studies.…”

Fatty Acid Structure and Degradation Analysis in Fingerprint Residues

“…When storage conditions were unknown, the results were not reliable, showing the significant impact of reported influence factors [38]. Additionally, Girod et al published two detailed review articles about composition of fingermark residue [39] and fingermark age determination, and associated legal considerations and practical propositions [40].…”

Nanoparticles used for fingermark detection—A comprehensive review

“…While some components of the fingermark residue are more resistant to microbial or oxidative degradation over long periods of time, others are labile and may only be detectable for a short period, giving rise to new breakdown products. Squalene, sterols, and triglycerides are notable examples of more labile fingermark components that follow predictable degradation pathways when exposed to the ambient environment (A. Girod et al, ).…”