Requirement 3 (B)
Requirement
Name the two basic principles supporting the science of fingerprints and give a brief explanation of each principle.
Two Basic Principles of Fingerprinting
In the scientific community at large, the following terminology is considered appropriate when speaking of the two basic principles of fingerprints.
Persistence
Fingerprints never change. If you draw a face on an uninflated balloon, then fill the balloon with air, the features of the face will grow with the balloon as you blow it up. Fingerprints are similar in that they remain permanent, but become larger as a baby grows into an adult. The small ridges that form on a person’s hands and feet before birth do not change shape as long as that person lives.
Uniqueness
No two fingerprints are alike. The ridges on a person’s hands and feet have distinctive, individual details that are never repeated on the hands or feet of any other person. In more than 100 years of comparisons of billions of fingerprints worldwide, no two fingerprints have been found to have the same features. Even identical twins have different fingerprints.
Now that you have identified the two basic principles that support the science of fingerprints,
let’s learn what it takes to positively identify a person using fingerprints.
