Journal of Biometrics & Biostatistics

Human Identification and Fingerprints: A Review

Abstract

Nitin Kaushal and Purnima Kaushal

Fingerprints have been the gold standard for personal identification within the forensic community for more than one hundred years. Fingerprints and finger marks combine to provide the most powerful means of personal identification available to police and courts. The basic patterns of fingerprints are loops, whorls and arches that can be found in fingerprints. The standard methodology used by fingerprint experts to conduct friction ridge examinations is called ACE-V, for analysis, comparison, evaluation, and verification, which are the four fundamental phases utilized in this process. The recovered prints can be manually compared with known antemortem records or searched through an automated fingerprint system (AFIS) in order to verify or establish identity.