The History of Fingerprints

History of Fingerprints

Fingerprint Classification and Latents

Tiffany Graves

May 11, 2013

Fingerprints have been used as a means of identification for over a hundred years. The earliest recorded use of fingerprints was 650AD when a merchant in China used a customer's print of currency to prove the man owed him money. Fingerprints are the oldest most established forensic science used today.

There are many founding fathers, whose research contributes to today's use of fingerprinting in forensics. Sir William Herschel, Sir Francis Galton, Juan Vucetich, Sir Edward Henry and Dr. Henry Faulds all contributed to what is now known as criminalistics use of fingerprints. Sir Edward Henry established a system and classification for prints in English speaking countries and Juan Vucetich in Spanish speaking countries (Leo, 2004).

The English first began using fingerprints in July of 1858, when Sir William James Herschel, Chief Magistrate of the Hooghly district in Jungipoor, India, first used fingerprints on native contracts (Unkown, 2013). This was thought of in spur of the moment without any thought as to means of personal identification. As Herschel's collection of prints grew he began to realize that they could indeed be used to identify and individual and it was his belief that the prints were unique to each individual and unchanging over the course of their lifetime. Herschel conducted the longest study of uniqueness and permanence in reference to fingerprints. These findings inspired him to expand the use of fingerprints.

Dr. Henry Faulds was the first to physically identify and individuals from a print off a bottle of alcohol. A learned and industrious man, Dr. Faulds not only recognized the importance of fingerprints as a means of identification, but devised a method of classification as well (Unkown, 2013). Faulds also published a letter to a scientific journal stating fingerprints could be used to identify criminals. Sir Francis Galton published the first book of Fingerprints in 1892 published in England, he also assigned names to major ridge characteristics: bifurcation, ridge ending, island and enclosure, also known as Galton details and are still examined today (Leo, 2004).

Since all the historical use of fingerprints for identification the system has only evolved and gotten better, they have served governments worldwide for over 100 years to provide accurate identification of criminals. No two fingerprints have ever been found alike in many billions of human and automated computer comparisons. Fingerprints are the very basis for criminal history foundation at every police agency on earth (Unknown, 2013). Remains the most commonly used forensic evidence worldwide - in most jurisdictions fingerprint examination cases