3.02 Developing Prints

• Introduction
• Learn
• Try It
• Task

Introduction

In the previous lesson, you learned about how fingerprints are classified, but how do investigators and forensic scientists locate and collect fingerprints left at a crime scene?

More than likely, you have either seen or heard of crime TV programs that shows investigators dusting a crime scene with black powder to enhance prints to lift. Is this the only method CSI or forensic scientists use to collect fingerprints? In this lesson, you will explore how fingerprints are collected, developed, and analyzed.

 

Lesson Objectives

Following successful completion of this lesson, students will be able to... Explain different methods of latent fingerprint development. Explain fingerprinting methods and identification techniques. Enduring Understandings Fingerprint evidence can be analyzed, classified set patterns of ridge characteristics, and used to identify an individual. Scientific inquiry utilizes the scientific method and inductive reasoning. The above objectives correspond with the Alabama Course of Study: Forensic and Criminal Investigations standards: 6.2, 6.3, and 12