Sex, Ancestral, and pattern type variation of fingerprint minutiae: A forensic perspective on anthropological dermatoglyphics

Abstract

Significant minutiae variation between ancestral groups yields information that is valuable in both a forensic and anthropological setting. Am J Phys Anthropol 160:625-632, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Application of likelihood ratio and posterior probability density in sex estimation from level two fingerprint features among Hausa ethnic group

“…The higher median value of ridge ending and bifurcation combine with convergence observed in this study is in agreement with what was reported among Spanish population (Gutierrez-Redomero et al 2007). Similarly, among African Americans and European Americans the same pattern was documented (Fournier and Ross 2016). In the process of personal identification, the less frequency of appearance of the epidermal features such as minutiae in the population reflects their importance in the forensic context.…”

“…Nine types of minutiae bifurcation, convergent, ridge ending, ridge enclosure (small), ridge enclosure (big), ridge fragment (small), ridge fragment (big), ridge dot between the ridges and dot within the ridges as defined by previous workers (Gutierrez-Redomero et al 2007;Adamu et al 2017) were narrowed to five types, ridge bifurcation (bifurcation& convergence), ridge ending, ridge enclosure (small & big), short ridge (small and big fragments), ridge dot (dot between or within the ridges).The selection of five minutiae types in this study was based on their distinctive characteristics and they are frequently encountered in comparison of fingerprints by forensic expert (Fournier and Ross 2016).…”

“…However, Native Americans, Asians, and Hispanics demonstrated insignificant differences between males and females (Reinart 2014). Gender was also not found to have a significant influence on minutiae (Fournier and Ross 2016). This led to suggestion that racial background can be considered in determining the significant sexual dimorphism (Reinart 2014).…”

“…This permanence of fingerprints is one of the characteristics that make them useful to disciplines like anthropology and forensic science. The process of ridge development is integral to the understanding of fingerprints and their purpose in forensic and anthropological investigations (Fournier and Ross 2016).…”

“…Fingerprint friction ridge details are described in a hierarchical order ranging from level one to level three (Hong et al 1998;Fournier and Ross 2016). Level one is for revealing macro detail such as ridge flow, which allows pattern classification and ridge counting (Jain et al 2007;Ashbaugh 1992;Langenburg 2004).…”