2. Forensic Scientists examine tiny fingerprint details. These may be loops,dots, forks, islands. Several comparison points must be perfectly matched for two fingerprints to be considered identical…
- A fingerprint may be small and unnoticeable to the eye, and even look like many other peoples, but they are in fact very different. Every fingerprint has a different pattern that is unique and unlike anyone else’s. I compared two fingerprints and found that they may look alike from afar, but up close one goes one way, while the other does something else and completely different.…
These methods are used in more complex situations involving more delicate surfaces. Most latent fingerprinting capture does take place in the laboratory and not at the crime scene itself. Certain developing agents reveal different properties of the fingerprint. Some fingerprint reagents are specific, for example ninhydrin or diazafluorenone react with certain amino acids. Ethyl cyanoacrylate polymerisation works by water-based catalysis and polymer growth. Fat layers as thin as one molecule can be detected with vacuum metal deposition using gold and zinc. More mundane methods, such as the application of fine powders, work by adhesion to sebaceous deposits. All of these methods are used on the insides of gloves discarded by perpetrators, walls, floors, clothing, fabric, wood, and most other materials to reveal latent…
How are fingerprints discovered at crime scenes? usually it is easy to be seen on items like plastic prints, however scientist are using a reflected ultraviolet imaging system to aim uv light where fingerprints might be, and if there a fingerprint will reflect the light back.…
3. Police officers, crime scene investigators and others in the justice system rely on forensic science techniques to ensure that the right people are punished for law violations and to keep people safe. Fingerprints are starting players in the criminal offense and defense lineup. They are so important to criminalistics that justice officers still use fingerprint systems over a hundred years after scientists developed them.…
1. What are some of the challenges with fingerprint evidence? What is science doing to make fingerprint analysis better?…
Chapter 5 describes how, within the last century, mounting scholarly evidence has exposed institutional flaws within our judicial and police systems, resulting in the convictions of innocent persons for capital crimes. In some cases, overzealous behavior by police and prosecutors, led to the imprisonment of “factually” innocent defendants. While police sometimes coerced confessions or failed to conduct full investigations, prosectors and judges failed to evidence which might exonerate the defendant. Other judicial violations found through study included failure to follow courtroom procedures related to rule of law. One of the first wrongful conviction initiatives was through a congressional investigation in 1912. Although a noble undertaking for its time, the reports was flawed in its evidentiary compilation. The data was poorly collected and its findings poorly deduced. According to the report, no innocent person had been executed by the Federal government.…
Retribution: the purpose of retribution is actively to injure criminal offenders, ideally in proportion with their injuries to society, and so expiate them of guilt. An example of Retribution is the code of Hammurabi, which punishes by the theory of “An eye for an eye”.…
* A pioneer in fingerprint analysis is Edward Foster. A famous case he was once involved in was “Caution! Fresh Paint.” It was about fingerprints that were left in wet paint next to the murder victim.…
This paper will explain how technology affects the communication capabilities of specialized databases in the criminal justice system. It will provide the definition, history of these specialized databases and provide the comparison of three different specialized databases, which are: Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), Facial Recognition, and Iris Scan. Included in this paper will be the Biometrics that has occurred throughout the years. Then there will the positive and negative effects of the new technologies on communication within the criminal justice system. Finally, I will discuss which new specialized techniques that I might use and why.…
Dror was not trying to challenge fingerprint analysis as a science or its reliability but instead its ability to be influenced by the many elements that can affect those who examine the data. The possibility of falling vulnerable to psychological and cognitive bias exists when evaluating fingerprint data. External influences can cause an expert to make an unintentionally biased decision. Similarly, context, motivation, and emotions can distort perception and judgments causing experts to make mistakes in their evaluations (Ladwig, 2017). People can be corned into a frame of mind that can affect how they view and interpret information. Of course, this occurs on a subconscious level but is significant in evaluating the issues in fingerprint analysis. Therefore, it is important to apply and learn the cognitive and psychological influences in the processing of fingerprint analysis. There are many errors that experts can make in fingerprint analysis whether intentionally or unintentionally. These errors may stem from negligence, incompetence, cognitive and psychological phenomena and even a lack of accountability on the criminal justice system. Even though these vulnerabilities exist, fingerprint analysis is more reliable than eyewitness testimony. In forensic science, much of the data evaluated can be susceptible to human bias and nothing is ever 100% accurate. However, eyewitness misidentification contributes to 75% of wrongful convictions (Schwartz, 2017). It is not always possible for an eyewitness to accurately recollect events from a past crime and provide testimony that is completely reliable. There is an extraneous number of factors that can affect eyewitness memory. Many of these factors are both within and not within the control of the criminal justice system but highly affect a witness’s testimony. To conclude, both fingerprint analysis and eyewitness memory can be reliable sources but are never 100% dependable. This can be seen by all the…
The innocence project and forensic science are two forms that can help determine who the actual preparatory was and can help people who have been wrongly convicted in a crime he/she did not commit. In many cases the forensic such as DNA, blood sample, or semen and other evidence that have been lost or even wrongly tested can end up becoming a big mistake that can send someone to jail that did not commit the crime. In the article, Forensic Problems and Wrongfully Convictions (2009) states that, the most wrongful convictions involve more than one contributing cases, for example, if an eyewitness may have wrongly identified an innocent person, and in the same case a forensic analyst may have testified that hairs from the crime scene match the defendant’s hair. In the jury’s eyes, the eyewitness testimony is strengthened by the forensic evidence (Forensic Problems and Wrongfully Convictions, 2009). Not always the eye witnesses are right with what they say so having the right forensic evidence can help with determine who is actually the perpetrator. Such as this case were the eyewitness was not so good and also a lot of the evidence was miss communicated.…
The Innocence Project is a non-profit legal organization that exonerates innocent individuals through the use of DNA testing. Moreover, they work to reform the criminal justice system in order to prevent further injustices that will occur. The United States criminal justice system is centuries years old and does not live up to the same standards as it once did. The American people are not equal. Minorities and the lower classes are not treated equally in our justice system. There have been far too many advancements in our world today to still be wrongly accused for crimes and paying the ultimate price for them.The system is starving for reform to ensure that every single American citizen is equal and treated accordingly to his or her inalienable…
Criminal Law, a fierce profession that leaves people on their heels most of the time. When you imagine it you just think about a prosecutor and a defendant going back and forth in a heart pounding case, but it evolves around more than that. In any type of law Science is a big part. However in the career of a criminal Lawyer Forensics Science plays a major role. Many crime scene investigators look for lots of detailed clues to start a trial. Most of the time they look for some type of identification when viewing scenes. Popular findings at crime scenes are fingerprints being left behind on objects at a scene after the crime. On the human organism there are three different types of fingerprints we can have. A fingerprint from…
The current methods of fingerprinting that involve subjective comparison and matching of fingerprinting has led to disapproval of the method. Extensive testing has shown that the results of fingerprint testing are not valid (Schmalleger, 2011). Fingerprint matches are now being done by experts, those fingerprints that have been previously been examined to make identification of suspects were presented to the same experts in a different context and the results were different. Similarly, DNA evidence for identification of criminals has been marred by several problems. Surreptitious DNA collecting, presentation of partial DNA profiles, and fake DNA evidence; cast doubts on the DNA evidence presented in courts (Schmalleger, 2011).…