Personal Identification

FINGERPRINTING

• A method of identification of an
individual through the use of the
impression made by the ridge
formation found in the terminal
part of the fingers.
• The fingerprint will start to develop during the
3rd or 4th month of fetal life of a person and
continue to exist until one will decompose due
to death.

• Automated Fingerprint Identification

System (AFIS) – is a computer based
identification system that stored collected
fingerprints from convicts or those
fingerprints collected from individual when
one applies for police clearance.
 The Importance of Fingerprint

1. Prevent impersonation (changing personal data)

2. Speedily identify a wrongdoer (falsification, forgery)
3. Serve to give evidence (identification of criminal)
4. Help to identify victims of disasters
5. Identify bodies whose cadavers are beyond recognition
6. Aid the judiciary in penal treatment (fingerprinting of
prisoners)
7. Prevent criminal substitution of the newly born.
 Historical Accounts
 T’ang Dynasty
• Ancient China
• Used fingerprint on official document and business transactions
• Japanese
• Can also be credited as one of the early explorer of fingerprint

Nehemiah Grew
• A British Doctor who was a fellow a Royal Society and a College
of Physician
• Introduced several ridge patterns of fingerprints (1684)
• First pioneer to study and describe sweat pores, epidermal ridges
and furrows, and various arrangement on both the hands and feet.
• Died on 1712.
 GOVARD
BIDLOO

• 1685 – Published
“Anatomia
Hvmani
Corporis” the
papillary ridges
on skin
• a Italian Physician and a plant
morphologist at the University of
Bologna, conducted a research
similar to Grew.
• In 1686, published his anatomical
research treatise “DE EXTEMO
TACTOS ORGANO”
• He delve further beneath the
surface of FP and introduced the
ridges, spirals and loops.
• “STRATUM MALPHIGI”
• 1.8 mm thick
• Grandfather of
Fingerprint/Dactyloscopy
 Prof. Johannes • Published his doctoral thesis “A
commentary on a Physiological
Evangelist Purkinje,
Examination of the Organs of the
1823 Vision and the Cutaneous system”
• Describes and illustrates
fingerprint formation into nine
different types:
*transverse curve,
*central longitudinal stria,
*oblique stripe, oblique loop,
*almont whorl, *spiral whorl,
*ellipse, *circle, and the *double
whorl.
The pattern was later on referred to
arches, tented arches, loops,
whorls and twinned loops.
William James Herschel, 1858
• employee of East India Company
• Konei – first client of William Hershel
• used fingerprint of pensioners to prevent fraud in claiming such
• Palm print
• FATHER OF CHIROSCOPY

Dr. Henry Faulds, 1880

• a Scottish missionary doctor of the United Presbyterian Church, conducted a
careful experiment and observation of fingerprint patterns.
• he concluded that fingerprint patterns are unchangeable and that
superficial injury of the fingers did not alter them, they returned to their
former design as injury healed.
• advocated the use of fingerprint in identifying criminals.
• Recommended the use of printers ink for known fingerprint recording.
 Sir Francis Galton, 1892
• Galton’s System of Classification
• 3 big family of fingerprint.
• 1:64,000,000,000 of possibilities
 has been appreciated and became the foundation of the modern fingerprint
science and art, his approach to classify fingerprints however was inadequate.
 Juan Vucetich
• policeman in Argentina.
• first person to put Galton’s System of Classification into practice.
• In 1891, he then devised his own system called “ICNOFALAGOMETRICO”
and in September of the same year this system was put into practice.
• In March 1892, he opened the first fingerprint bureau at San Nicholas, Buenos
Aires.
• In June 19, 1892, first conviction by means of fingerprint evidence was
obtained against Francisca Rojas who murdered her two children.
• In 1894, Argentinean Police Force was the first in the world to adopt
fingerprints as a principal means of identifying criminals.
Edward Richard Henry, 1897
• appointed as Assistant Commissioner of Police at New Scotland yard and begun to
introduce his fingerprint system of identification into that institution.
• HENDRY SYSTEM OF CLASSIFICATION in England
widely used by police forces and prison authorities throughout the world to date.
• In 1902, first British Conviction of HARRY JACKSON of the crime of burglary.
• Considered as a FATHER OF FINGERPRINT.

Other important personalities

John Dillinger
• a known criminal who tried to effaced his fingerprint by burning them with
acid, but to no avail.

Roscoe James Pitt (aka Robert Phillips)

• a man who was once considered as a “man without fingerprint”.
• Skin from chest to cover his fingerprint
• Thomas Bewick
- An Englishman who used fingerprint as his signature by
engraving them in a wooden plate.
• Eugene Francois Vidocq
- The chief of French police organization called “Sureté” who
introduced method of identifying criminals by memory
(photographic eye). Police officers are required to remember
his facial characteristics as accurately as possible.
• Adolphe Quetelet
- Developed a theory that there was a one to four chance of
any two adult persons having the same height.
• Thomas Taylor
- Introduced the new system of palmistry. In his
article, he cited that the markings of the palms of
the hands can possibly be used in identifying
criminals.

• Herman Welcker
- In 1856, he took his own print on his right palm
and 41 years later took another print of the same
hand and found out that prints do not change.
Johann Christoph
Andreas Mayer Alphonse Bertillon

• He was the first • The first inventor of

European person to mugshot in 1840
recognize that • 1888 – year in which
fingerprints were the bertillonage was
unique to each standardized.
individual.
 Will and William West Case
• Date: Late 19th century, around the 1880s.
• Location: United States, primarily Leavenworth, Kansas.
• Key Individuals:
• William West: A criminal and prisoner.
• Will West: Another criminal and prisoner, unrelated to William West.
• Case Overview:
• Two prisoners, William West and Will West, were incarcerated at the same prison.
• Officials noticed an uncanny resemblance between their physical characteristics, including their measurements and
Bertillon measurements (a system for identifying individuals based on physical measurements).
• Mistaken Identity:
• Authorities mistakenly believed that Will West was the same person as William West.
• This case raised concerns about the reliability of the Bertillon measurement system and the potential for identical
measurements in different individuals.
• Significance:
• The case highlighted the limitations of relying solely on physical measurements for identification, as two unrelated
individuals could share similar measurements.
• This incident contributed to the growing recognition of the need for more accurate and reliable methods of criminal
identification.
• Impact:
• The case played a role in the eventual adoption of fingerprinting as a more dependable method of criminal
identification.
• It also contributed to the decline of the Bertillon system's use for identification purposes.
 GILBERT THOMPSON

• He claimed to have been the first person to use

fingerprints for identification in1882, when he had
his thumbprint on a message that said “august 8,
1882 – Mr. Jonas Sutler will pay Lying Bob
Seventy Five Dollar”
• This is to prevent fraudulent cheque alteration
 ARTHUR KOLLMAN

• He studied the fingerprint characteristics of friction

ridges and volar pads (tissue called mesenchyme under
the epidermis on the palmar surface of the hands and
soles of the feet of the human fetus)
• The first researcher to address the formation of friction
ridges on the fetus and the random physical stresses and
tensions that may have played a part in their growth.
• The first researcher to study the development of friction
ridges
• The first to study epidermis markings in different races.
 EDWARD FOSTER
• Edward Foster introduced a systematic method for
classifying and cataloging fingerprints, which was a
crucial step toward their practical application in
identification.
• His method involved categorizing fingerprints based on
their unique ridge patterns and creating a systematic
framework for their classification.
• Edward Foster's work laid the foundation for the
widespread acceptance and use of fingerprints in criminal
identification.
• His efforts were instrumental in transitioning from
subjective identification methods to a more objective and
scientific approach based on unique biometric features.
Fingerprint Development in the Philippines
Jones, 1901
• taught fingerprint in the PC
Generoso Reyes
• first Filipino fingerprint technician
Philippine VS Medina
• first person convicted in the Philippines through fingerprint
• Robbery
Early Methods of Identification

• Branding
• Mutilation
• Tattooing
• Descriptive Clothing
• Measurement of the Height (Quetelet’s Method)
• Photographic Eye
• Photographing (Daguerrotyping)
• Anthropological Measurement
 Identification
S.No. Chances of Failure
Method
Measurement of
1 1 in 4
Height
Comparison of Pubic
2 1 in 800
Hair
Comparison of Scalp
3 1 in 4500
Hair
4 Anthropometry 1 in 268 million

5 Teeth bite marks 1 in 2.5 billion

6 Dactylography 1 in 64 billion

7 DNA Fingerprinting 1 in 2 x 1022

 Important terms in Fingerprint
• Forensic – Latin word “forum” – public
disputation, public discussion
• Forensic Science – application of a broad spectrum
of sciences and technologies to investigate and
establish facts of interest in relation to criminal or
civil law.
• Dr. Hans Gross – father of criminalistics
• Dactyloscopy – the science of fingerprint. It
derives from the words “dactylos” which means
fingers and “skopien” which means to examine.
• Edgeoscopy – the study of the characteristics of
the ridge for comparison.
• Fingerprint – it is a reproduction of some smooth
surface of the hand form by the ridges and furrow.
• Friction Ridge – raised strips of the skin on the
inside of the end joints of the fingers and thumbs
by which fingerprints are made. It is sometimes
called papillary ridge or epidermal ridge.
 Allied Science of Fingerprint

1. Chiroscopy – the science that deals with the

study of the palm print in relation to
identification.
2. Podoscopy – the science deals with the study of
sole of human foot for identification purposes.
3. Poroscopy – the science that deals with the study
of human pores or sweat glands. This method of
identification in introduces by Edmund Locard.
 FINGERS ABNORMALITIES
• Polydactylism – the appearance of extra fingers as
anatomically known.
• Macrodactyly – rare condition in which an infant’s
fingers or toes are abnormally large due to
overgrowth of bone and soft tissues.
• Syndactyl – a condition of having two or more
digits of fingers united or joined together as by
webbing.
• Brachydactyl - shortness or smallness of fingers
and toes. This is inherited. “Microdactyly”
 Dogmatic principle of fingerprint

• Principle of permanency/consistency
 a.k.a. Principle of Womb to Tomb
 fingerprint never change
 coined by Herschel
• Principle of individuality
 No two fingerprints are alike
• Principle of Infallibility
 fingerprint is reliable and cannot be altered