Introduction
Fingerprints can be used to catch criminals, unlock your phone, or control entry into a home or business. To tell the difference between fingerprints, analysts (and the programs they design) must focus on the details.
In this lesson, you will learn to group fingerprints based on ridge patterns and look more closely at the characteristics used to individualize a fingerprint.
Following successful completion of this lesson, students will be able to...
- Classify prints based on their ridge patterns.
- Identify distinguishing ridge characteristics of a fingerprint.
Essential Questions
- What do fingerprint analysts look for when trying to match a fingerprint to that of a suspect?
- What is the difference between processing and analyzing evidence?
Enduring Understandings
- Forensic results are open to the interpretation and subject to the limitation of the pathologist's knowledge and methods.
- Evidence must be collected in a specific and strategic manner, as well as systematically documented, to ensure that no tampering or contamination occurs.
The above objectives correspond with the Alabama Course of Study: Forensic Science and Crime Scene Investigation standards: 26, 28.