Fingerprint Evidence: Current Events
The sue of fingerprint analysis as evidence for proving one’s guilt of or, at the very least, one’s connection to a crime, has been a common practice in criminology for decades. More importantly, the specified approach is still practiced, leading to quite positive outcomes. For instance, a study by Sharma (2019) examines a murder case committed in 2016, in which the perpetrator taped the body to the floor and left weird red marks in the victims’ face. The use of the fingerprint analysis led to the identification of the murderer, whose fingerprints aligned with five of those obtained from the tape (Sharma, 2019). A similarly effective use of the fingerprint technique for identifying the perpetrator is discussed in the paper by AlSuwaidi et al. (2020), who explain the importance of the specified technique in solving the case of a body found in a trolly bag in one of the Dubai apartments.
Chemical Methods for Latent Prints
In order to develop latent fingerprints, several methods can be applied. In essence, latent fingerprints are the ones that cannot be detected and identified until a specific method of visualization is applied. Among key chemical methods of detecting latent fingerprints, one should mention iodine fuming first (Abebe et al., 2020). Being the oldest and the most basic one, the specified strategy suggests sprinkling an item with fingerprints on it with iodine crystals and waiting until the fumes are evaporated to have a developed fingerprint appear (Abebe et al., 2020). Another approach requires the use of ninhydrin, which must eb added to ethanol or acetone. After the mixture is applied to the area where fingerprints are supposed to be, fingerprints become visible, colored in purple due to the reaction between ethanol and amino acids contained in the fingerprint residue (Abebe et al., 2020). The specified method also provides quite accurate results despite its basic framework.
References
Abebe, B., Murthy, H. C. A., Amare Zereffa, E., & Dessie, Y. (2020). Latent fingerprint enhancement techniques: a review. Journal of Chemical Reviews, 2(1), 40-56.
Almehiri, A. M. O., AlSuwaidi, M. A. A. A., Almarri, M. T. R., Rashid, J. M. A., & Sharma, B. K. (2019). A complicated murder case solved with the aid of fingerprints. International Journal on Emerging Technologies, 10(3), 306-310.
AlSuwaidi, M. A. A. A., Almehiri, A. M. O., Almarri, M. T. R., Rashid, J. M. A., & Sharma, B. K. (2020). Significance of fingerprints in a brutal travel bag murder – A case report. Medico-Legal Update, 20(1), 393-396.