History of Fingerprinting.

Science of fingerprint indentification has served all governments around the world for the past 100 years to provide correct ID of criminals. The first forensic organization established was the International Association of Identification in 1915. It remains the most commonly used forensic evidence worldwide. In Babylon, fingerprints were used on clay tablets for business transactions. Now days they use such things as fingerprint scanner's. The procedure for capturing a fingerprint using a sensor consists of rolling or touching with the finger onto a sensing area, which according to the physical principle in use (capacitive, optical, thermal, acoustic, etc.) captures the difference between valleys and ridges.

LINK: http://www.onin.com/fp/fphistory.html

Basic Types/ patterns of fingerprints.

If you examine the tips of your fingers with a magnifying glass, you will see that they are covered in little ridges of skin that make patterns. These patterns are formed on your fingers before you are born, and stay the way they are for your whole life. Nobody else in the world has a pattern like yours ... it's unique!

What chemicals to use on different types of surfaces.

Techniquies/Chemicals used to develop prints on nonabsorbent, porous, hard, and smooth surfaces.

1. To visualize fingerprints made on hard or non absorbent surfaces, the investigator typically applies a specialized fingerprint powder. Black powder which is composed of black carbon or charcoal is typically applied to white or light colored surfaces.

2. To visualize fingerprints on soft and porous surfaces , the crime scene investigator must use some kind of chemical treatment including: iodine fuming, ninhydrin, silver nitrate, and super glue fuming.

3. Florescent powders can be used to develop latent prints, these powders will florescence when viewed under ultraviolet light.

Types of Fingerprints: Patent, Plastic, & Latent.

Pantent Prints- are visable prints that occur when a foreign substance on the skin of the finger comes in contact with the smooth surface of another object. These prints leave a distinct ridge impression that is visable with the naked eye without any technology enhancement.



Plastic Prints- are visble, impressed prints that occur when a finger touches a soft, malleable surface concluding in an identation. Some surfaces that may contain this type of fingerprint are those that are freshly painted or coated, or those that contain wax, gum, blood, or any other substance that will soften when held and then retain the finger ridge impressions.

Latent Prints- are fingerprint impressions secreted in a surface or an object and are usually invisible to the naked eye. These prints are the result of presperation which is deprived from sweat pores found in the ridges of fingers. when fingers touch other body parts, moisture, oil and grease adhere to the ridges so that when the fingers touch an object, such as a lamp, a flim of these substances my be transferred to that obect. The impression left on the object leaves a distinct outline of the ridges of that finger.


LINK(S): http://www.buzzle.com/articles/identifying-fingerprint-patterns-types-of-fingerprints.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?Common-Types-of-Fingerprints&id=2592020

History of Handwriting.

The interest in handwriting as an indicator of personality has its origins far back in history. Over 2000 years ago, Aristotle noticed the correlation between handwriting and personality while the Chinese independently also made the observation that there was a connection between character and writing. However, only in 1622 that an Italian physician and professor of philosophy at the University of Bologna, published a book describing the analysis of character through the study of handwriting. Handwrinting has started over many years ago from a feathered pen to a mechanical pencil. Development has changed so differently over the years, that it's impacted the way it helps us learn. In schools now days teachers use expo markers on white boards to get the message across to students.

Twelve Basic Characteristics.

1. Line Quality

2. Spacing of Words and Letters

3. Ratio of Height, Width, and size of letters

4. Lifting Pen

5. Connecting Strokes

6. Strokes to begin and end

7.Unusual letter formation

8. Pen Pressure

9. Slant

10. Baseline Habits

11.Fantacy Wrinting Habits

12. Placement of Diacritics.

Inaccuracy in Handwriting Analysis.

Why do forensic investigators have trouble using handwriting analysis techniques?

There are a number of reasons that can interfere with ones use with handwriting analysis techniques. One is the type of writing instrument that one uses. Other items that should be taken into account when trying to compare writing samples are the document written on and the circumstance in which it was wrote.

Hair and Fiber Analysis.

The purpose was to use microscopy to identify natural hair, synthetic, and other types of fiber. For the procedure, we placed the type of hair under the microscope. Observe the type and whether its the unknown or something else. We observed:

1. Black Male Hair

2. White Male Hair

3. Synthetic

4. Asian Hair

5. Color Treated

6. Dog Hair

7. Cat Hair

We sucessfully found out that the unknown was male hair.

When crime scenes take place investigators use hair and fiber to identify the suspect(s) of the crime. Since hair is considered a class characteristic, it is regarded as contributing evidence and can be used to exclude a suspect. Hair samples are collected from several parts of the body and typically contain approximately a minimum of 25 strands. Hair analysis can help determine the origin of the source as either human or animal. If the hair sample is from a human source, the race of the individual can be determined through hair analysis. A follicular tag or piece of skin, at the root of the hair is a rich source of DNA. One of the ways cross-transfer of fibers occurs is via person-to-person contact. Fibers are considered a class characteristic. The three categories of fibers include:

1. natural (i.e. wool or cotton)

2. manufactured/ synthetic (i.e. rayon or polyester)

3. man-made combinations of natural and synthetic fibers (nylon).

This type of trace evidence is collected at a crime scene with tweezers, tape or a vacuum and brought back to the laboratory for microscopic comparison.

LINK:

http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1232,q,557826.asp

Blood Type Compatibility.

Blood group AB: individuals have both A and B antigens on the surface of their RBCs, and their blood serum does not contain any antibodies against either A or B antigen. Therefore, an individual with type AB blood can receive blood from any group (with AB being preferable), but can donate blood only to another type AB individual.

Blood group A: individuals have the A antigen on the surface of their RBCs, and blood serum containing IgM antibodies against the B antigen. Therefore, a group A individual can receive blood only from individuals of groups A or O (with A being preferable), and can donate blood to individuals with type A or AB.

Blood group B: individuals have the B antigen on the surface of their RBCs, and blood serum containing IgM antibodies against the A antigen. Therefore, a group B individual can receive blood only from individuals of groups B or O (with B being preferable), and can donate blood to individuals with type B or AB.

Blood group O: individuals do not have either A or B antigens on the surface of their RBCs, but their blood serum contains IgM anti-A antibodies and anti-B antibodies against the A and B blood group antigens. Therefore, a group O individual can receive blood only from a group O individual, but can donate blood to individuals of any ABO blood group (ie A, B, O or AB). If anyone needs a blood transfusion in a dire emergency, and if the time taken to process the recipient's blood would cause a detrimental delay, O Negative blood can be issued.

LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_type

Crime Scene Investigation:Drug Trafficing.

Who did it?
Purpose: To use forensic science to identify the suspect of the crime.

Suspects: Kooliandra Jones, Mike Kelly, and Steffi the cat.

On our table was a crime scene consisting on different evidence that we had to find out. including:

1. Black Hair
2. Handwriting (Ha Ha Ha! I Love Crack!)
3. Black Cat Hair
4. Blood (Type AB)
5. Crack in a bag
6. Woman's left shoe and earring.
7. Ulnar Fingerprint


The Story: The crime scene took place at 5543 Sedgley Avenue, San Fansisco which is where Mr. Kelly lives. He deals crack and has been charged several times. Around 10 o' clock on a Tuesday night Mrs. Jones rang his door with her cat steffi, intending to buy some crack from Kelly. He gave her the crack and she took off running, Kelly took out his gun and shot Mrs. Jones. She left behind her cat, but not only that she left her left shoe and a earring of hers. Mr. Kelly wrapped her body up in his living room rug, taped it and rolled it to the elevator where he took her down and out to his car. He drove to the Golden Gate bridge and dropped her over the bridge into the water. Investigators showed up at his house three days later inquiring about Mrs. Jones.