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This article deals with accounting for error in latent fingerprint identification. The year 2004 witnessed what was probably the most highly publicized fingerprint error ever exposed: the case of Brandon Mayfield, an Oregon attorney and Muslim convert who was held for two weeks as a material witness in the Madrid bombing of March 11, 2004, a terrorist attack in which 191 people were killed. Mayfield was implicated in this attack almost solely on the basis of a latent fingerprint found on a bag in Madrid containing detonators and explosives in the aftermath of the bombing. A few weeks later the FBI retracted the identification altogether and issued a rare apology to Mayfield. The Spanish National Police had attributed the latent print to Ouhnane Daoud, an Algerian national living in Spain. The author argues that the myth of the infallibility of fingerprint identification is in many ways a historical accident. There is a need to acknowledge that latent print identification is susceptible to error, like any other method of source attribution, and to confront and seek to understand its sources of error. One way to begin the process of studying error would be for law enforcement agencies and the professional forensic science community to begin assembling a more complete data set of latent print errors.

The article discusses the evolution of the criminal record keeping system and the development of the Bureau of Criminal Records. Identification bureaus furnished to department heads the previous criminal history and records of persons arrested and charged with committing a criminal offense. Their problem was possibility of the person arrested to have a prior record. Gradually there developed the idea of grouping photographs of professional criminals, and here was entered a wedge for crime prevention by identifying criminals before their arrest. Later, photographs of these specialists in crime were segregated by their hair color, eye color, height, weight and age, and finally, in some cases the photographs were further divided according to physical peculiarities of the criminal. The system devised by Inspector Atcherley, of the English Constabulary, for the identification of criminals by the individual's method of operation, was revised and utilized by American identification experts. This system offers for the elimination of suspects and the rapid identification of criminals by their victims, it will also afford peace officers, particularly the investigating officers, the opportunity to study and memorize the photographs of persons who specialize in particular types of crime. Comparing finger prints found at the scene of crime with finger prints on file in the bureau was the next step in the evolution of police investigation and crime prevention.

The article focuses on the value of digital impressions as an effective and irrefutable means of establishing identity during searching for the antecedents of suspects of the criminal classes. Finger-prints may be described briefly as unerring and unvarying sign-manuals which admit of being so classified as to afford any easy clue to the discovery of the name and also the record of a person who withholds or falsifies it. The pattern is an Arch "when the ridges in the centre run from one side to the other without assuming a backward turn or twist; it is a Loop when there is a single backward turn but no twist; and a Whorl when there is a turn through at least one circle or a double turn in the form of a duplex spiral. The Finger-Print System was systematically introduced into the Northern Provinces of the Protectorate of Nigeria, the largest and the most ethologically diversified of the West African Colonies, some ten years ago. There is a definite absence of digital type variation amongst English offenders of the various classes, and this tends to confirm the generally accepted axiom that the true criminal instinct is fortuitous and its subsequent development contingent upon adverse social or moral circumstances.

The article reports that Bertillon system has taught the police the reliability of finger prints as a part of a system of identification far superior to the ordinary photograph. Apparently the question first arose in the United States only a few years ago, when a certain Chicagoan seeking a dishonest livelihood broke into a dwelling house at an early hour of the morning, extinguished the night lamp, awakened the family, killed the father, and got away. The house had been freshly painted; on a railing near the window through which an entrance had been effected were found in the paint the imprint of four fingers of a left hand. At a trial of a suspect against whom there was only circumstantial evidence, enlarged photographs of these prints were compared by experts with photographs of impressions from the defendant's fingers. The authorities state that this system of identification is of very ancient origin, having been used in Egypt when the impression of the monarch's thumb was used as his sign manual; that it has been used in the courts of India for many years.

The article focuses on the use of fingerprints in identifying the criminals. The finger print system as an absolutely sure means of identification has been substituted for the anthropometrical method of Bertillon in the service of criminal identification in Germany, England and Italy. All other European governments still use the Bertillon system, although most of them take fingerprints besides. The Bertillon system has the one great advantage that it is applied all over Europe without any modification. The same classification facilitates the discovery of a criminal whose records are on file. Fingerprints on the other hand are classified in different ways, but from the time a child is born until the tissues are destroyed after death by decomposition, the patterns remain the same. It requires minute attention with a lens properly to classify the fingerprints. This work is never left to one man, but at least two, independent of each other, examine the proofs submitted to them and in turn submit their findings in a sealed envelope to a third expert, who scrutinizes the cards himself.

The article presents information related to criminal identification and the various developments in the criminology. Every individual who is somatically undeveloped, or psychologically inferior, should be regarded as a degenerate. Degeneration can therefore be endogenic or exogenic. Here the contributing factors are chiefly sociological and economical. The inherited as well as the acquired criminal tendency may be influenced and adjusted through physical, ethical and psychical attributes which are inherent in the germ plasma and the greater the endogenous variations, the greater the adaptability, based on the assumption that acquired mental characteristics modify the germ cells. In other words, thoughts and feelings are not directly transmitted, but the motive impulses governing them are. As scientific knowledge increases and is made more exact, new methods of identification and proof are developed. Since if has been scientifically established that the papillary lines of the finger tips are different in each person and that they remain unchanged from birth to the decomposition of the body, and since impressions made by the finger tips may be photographically preserved, it would seem that the method of identification by such impressions was sufficiently trustworthy to allow the impressions to be received in evidence.

The article presents abstracts of several articles related to police science, which were published in various journals. The article "Racial Differences in Finger Patterns," by Ogden L. Glason, published in the March 1972 issue of the journal "Finger Print & Identification," analyzes the difference in finger-print patterns between Caucasians and Negroes. The analysis reveals that Caucasians have larger numbers of ulnar loops, radial loops, and all loops, while Negroes have larger numbers of arches and whorls. Another article "The Effect of Washing on the Detection of Blood and Seminal Stains," by J. Spector and D. Von Gemmingen, published in the "Canadian Society of Forensic Science Journal," determines the degree to which blood and semen are removed from fabric which has been subjected to a variety of washing procedures. The results show that detectable traces of blood and semen are not readily removed by washing and that blood or semen stains are easier removed from acetate material than from cotton.

The article discusses the application of dusting-tape method in the fingerprinting of the deceased. The purpose of fingerprinting the deceased is to obtain as much clearly defined ridge detail from each finger as is possible. It is opined that there are several applications of the dusting tape method and among these are the taking of palm impressions of the deceased. Palm impressions of the deceased are extremely difficult to obtain by the ink method. The dusting tape method works well in this situation due to the flexible nature of the tape, which allows it to conform to the shape of the hand. Another application of the dusting-tape method is in the recording of legible impressions from people with stiffened joints or broken limbs in casts where the traditional inking methods are quite painful. The method is an easier technique for recording palm impressions from deceased persons. The dusting-tape method also eliminates smears, which are normally a problem with rolled inked finger print impressions encountered when fingerprinting the dead.

This article presents technical abstracts and notes related to police science. One abstract focuses on a new method for the detection of bloody latent finger prints. In the book "Fingerprint and Identification Magazine," the authors H. Nariyuki, K. Veda and T. Sasaki describe a method for bloody prints utilizing a beuzidine and collodion solution which allows the developed prints to be lifted with tape. The method may be used on a variety of textures and surfaces. Another abstract presents the constitutional and legal aspects of voiceprints. Included are techniques utilized in voiceprint identification and constitutional areas and recent cases which relate to this identification procedure. A yet another abstract describes the GLC based system for the detection of poison, drugs, and human metabolites encountered in forensic toxicology. A GLC method using four columns and three liquid phases, complemented by a direct solvent extraction scheme designed to detect common poisons, drugs, and human metabolites, to a certain sensitivity limit in blood, urine and tissue specimens, is presented and discussed. Relative retention data for almost 600 different substances are tabulated in two indices.

This section presents abstracts of articles related to police or forensic sciences. The Case Against Steven Truscott in Canada by Keith Simpson. Professor Simpson discusses the rehearing of the evidence in the Truscott case at which he testified for the prosecution. Injury to a Single Ridge May Produce Obscure Change without Evident Scar by Parduman Shugh. Photographs are used to illustrate a change in a single ridge caused by injury prior to 1929 and evident for the first time in 1950. This could cause some doubt in the mind of the uninformed fingerprint technician. Identification Notes on the Gyrojet Weapons System by Duayne Dillon and John Thornton. The design, operation, ballistics, and identification notes on the Gyrojet handgun are listed. The only identifying mark found on spent rockets was the firing pin impression which can be matched to the launcher used. Rhesus Antigens in Dried Bloodstains by M. Bagagna and Margaret Pereira. A preliminary study of the determination of Rh factors by absorption elution yielded promising results. While this study was only introductory, the authors achieved reliable results with several of the Rh phenotypes examined. Ear Identification by Alfred V. Iannarelli. A system for the classification of ears for use in personal identification is described. The system uses the right ear which is photographed and then printed at a standard size used for classification.

This article discusses the development of latent fingerprints within ninhydrin. Following the introduction of chromatographic techniques in the early 1940s, ninhydrin was used to locate amino acids on chromatograms. In spite of the history of ninhydrin usage and the oft repeated admonition against touching chromatograms or other test material that was to be exposed to ninhydrin, a British patent was granted in 1955 for the usage of ninhydrin to develop latent fingerprints. Ninhydrin can be applied to documents by spraying, dipping, or by brushing. Spraying advantageous when using the masking technique to cover handwriting evidence. Latent fingerprints developed with ninhydrin appear anywhere from ten minutes to several weeks after processing. Heat can be used to accelerate the reaction. Some workers have found that storing processed documents in an atmosphere with 70 percent humidlity aid in development. Prints developed with ninhydrin are not permanent. Fading will start to occur as soon as one month after optimum development. It is good practice to photograph all developed prints having identification potential. In certain cases it may also be desirable to photograph documents prior to processing for latent fingerprints.

The article presents police science technical abstracts and notes. The Criminogenic Action of Cannabis (Marihuana) and Narcotics, by M. Andrade, wherein the author can find no evidence to classify cannabis as a narcotic. Recent Advances in the Chemical Research of Cannabis, by L. Grlic which is a review of the literature on separation of components of marihuana resin. Fingerprint Photography, Painting with Specular Reflection, by F. V. Woodward, which suggested that fingerprints on round objects can be photographed by painting the surface with light using the minimum diaphragm opening. Larceny of Poultry, by S. S. Kind, R. A. Outteridge and E. A. Kilner which examined the contents of the gizzards of stolen poultry, comparing this with control specimens, which may serve to identify the source of poultry. Shoe Impressions in Snow, by R. D. Ostler, which outlined a simple procedure, using a cooled plaster of Paris mix, for casting impressions in snow. Mobile Criminals and Organized Crime, by J. King which suggested that offenses committed using a car should carry heavier sentences than offenses without a car. Death From Chlorpromazine Poisoning, by A. Fatteh which reported the anatomical and histological findings in the death of a 67 year old woman by chlorpromazine.

This article discusses the use of hydrogen fluoride in the development of latent fingerprints found on glass surfaces. The use of hydrofluoric acid for the development of latent fingerprints on glass surfaces bas been suggested by several investigators. In each instance, however, the use of hydrofluoric acid, an aqueous solution of the gas hydrogen fluoride, is suggested rather than the use of hydrogen fluoride itself. This investigation was conducted using hydrofluoric acid vapor, a mixture of hydrogen fluoride and water vapor, rather than liquid hydrofluoric acid. The choice of the acid vapor is based upon the well established fact that the destruction of fingerprint detail is greatly increased with an increase in the density of the developing medium. For example, a gas or vapor technique such as iodine or osmium tetroxide fuming should he one of the first methods considered for the development of latent fingerprints (1) (2) (3) (4) (5). The reactions between hydrofluoric acid and silicates are well understood.

A method is described for obtaining fingerprints from corpses with abraded fingers caused by occupation, by accident incidental with death, or by deliberate mutilation. The technique can be used for classification and identification. Minute detail is present as deep as the 100th section when sections are cut at 6 micra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on finger printing. Edward Henry was appointed an assistant magistrate collector in the Indian Civil Service in 1873, and became Inspector General of Police at Bengal, India in 1891. At that time Bertillonage was the mode of identification of criminals. He visited Galton during 1893, and, having gained first hand knowledge of the current work on finger printing, he introduced it as an additional aid to identification, when he returned to India. In his Circular of January 11, 1896, he indicated that he was still working on a system of classification which he hoped, after severe tests, would supersede Bertillonage. Henry described his classification before the British Association when it met at Dover, England in 1899. The precise share of credit due to Henry is a matter of opinion. His classification is considered by some to be wholly original, whereas, as already stated, others prefer to describe it as the Galton-Henry system. Henry drew attention to certain changes he had introduced, for example, the increase of type patterns from three to four and a system of classifying not dependent upon the employment of suffixes.

Cyril John Poison, M.D., F.R.C.P., Barrister-at-Law, is Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Leeds, England. For this article Dr. Poison made an extensive survey of historical documents and books dealing with the history of finger prints and finger printing and has compiled a comprehensive report of the work of those who were responsible for the introduction and use of finger printing as a means of personal identification. In this paper he has attempted to revaluate the work of each early worker in this field so that despite long standing controversies and personal claims each might be given his proper share of credit. Because of the length of this paper it has been found necessary to publish it in two parts, the second of which is to appear in the following issue of this JOURNAL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of various research papers that were published in the September 1950 issue of "Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology." One of the research papers related to preservation of agricultural specimens in plastic gives techniques for the preservation of delicate material in plastic. Another research paper about the partition ratio of alcohol between air and water, urine and blood relates results of controlled determinations of alcohol in water, blood, and urine by analysis of air in equilibrium with them. The concentration range used was found to obey Henry's Law when the equilibrium was approached from above or below. A ratio of 2000:1 for alcohol concentrations in blood to expired alveolar air at 34° temperature is indicated by their results. In the research, Color Test for Cocaine, a test id performed by mixing the sample of cocaine with 100 mgs performs of potassium nitrate and adding 10 drops of sulfuric acid. After heating on water bath the mixture is cooled and diluted to 30 ml. with water and extracted with chloroform, which is discarded, alkalized with ammonia and extracted with chloroform. Intense purple color indicates cocaine.

This article focuses on a method for calculating the serial numbers of the Henry fingerprint system. In all identification bureaus employing the Henry fingerprint system, the classification formula for a set of prints consists of a numerical fraction. Primary filing and searching is dependent on this fraction. Midway in the recording of serials on the grid researchers observed that the numbers for the first and last fractions for any primary group could be arrived at by simple addition. Thus, primary fraction V2 would have serial number 33. This is determined by the mere addition of " 1 " to the total number of primaries possible for the denominator-group. Similarly, the serial number for the last fraction for any primary group may be determined by adding the totals of each full complement of 32 numerators in all the primary groups concerned. However, the product resulting from the first step provides a number greater than that represented by problem numerator, hence the second step which provides the reducing element needed for lowering the firststep product to a serial number of the fraction. Stated differently, the result is always a serial number which occupies, as an integer, precisely the same position on the grid, and in the finger print file, as that occupied by a given fraction.

The article presents information about obtaining a print from a mummified finger. The body of a Bantu male was found on March 6, 1949 in Klerksdorp in Transvaal, South Africa. The features were in such a state of decomposition as completely to impair their use in identification, and it therefore became necessary to obtain identifiable fingerprints. To enable the South African Criminal Bureau to classify and search, the two thumbs, best preserved of the fingers, were placed in formalin and sent in. The use of formalin for this purpose is not in accordance with authorized practice. Klerksdorp has a hot and dry climate, and this factor, combined with the use of the formalin, resulted in the thumbs being received in an advanced state of mummification. The surface contained deep and permanent furrows, and the skin was as hard as stone, which prevented the taking of adequate finger-prints by the rolling method. Further, in the condition in which they arrived, photographs of the surface of the specimens would have been valueless.

This article focuses on organization and standardization of police science techniques. The problem of the organization and standardization of police science techniques has concerned this writer and several of his colleagues' for many years, and it was felt that some concerted effort should be made to realize such a program. With this thought in mind, a paper discussing a plan was presented before a meeting of the newly formed Michigan-Ontario Identification Association on September 27,1947, at East Lansing. Essentially the same paper was presented at Die First American Medico-Legal Congress in St. Louis, January 19. 1948. The field of police science at present appears to be reaching a fork in the road. If one looks back over a period of years, it is apparent that the pattern for scientific crime detection has been formulated. The science and skills of firearms identification, fingerprint identification, serology, toxicology, document examination, detection of deception, and a score of related technique have been established.

The article focuses on protection of innocent persons against misuse by police authorities of photographs and fingerprints. Upon his acquittal of a criminal charge plaintiff, in the recent case of State ex rel. Mavity v. Tyndall brought an action against public officials for return of fingerprints, photographs and measurement records taken against his will. Plaintiff based his claim for relief on his "right of privacy." In determining how far the courts should go in their attempts to restore to an innocent person the unblemished record he enjoyed prior to arrest, interests of the state must be carefully balanced against those of the individual. Since it is necessary in the efficient conduct of police affairs that reasonable discretion be allowed police officials, courts are reluctant to grant relief except in the clearest cases. The Federal rule, declared by the office of the Attorney General, provides that the records are not to be made public prior to trial, and after acquittal they are to be destroyed or surrendered to the defendant.

The article discusses compulsory fingerprinting and the self-incrimination privilege. It must be surprising to the public, which has become aware of the extensive fingerprint systems maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and by many municipal police departments, that the propriety of taking an accused person's fingerprints against his will and using them as evidence at the trial is not a closed question. Such was the situation in the recent case of State versus Watson, where the defendant claimed, among other things, that his fingerprints had been taken without his consent, and that this violated the right against self-incrimination guaranteed him by the federal and state Constitutions. In arguing the case, however, defendant's counsel succeeded in persuading the court that taking a person's fingerprints was analogous to, and should be governed by the rules relating to confessions. The court apparently treated as synonymous with the confession rule the objection that admission of fingerprints violated the defendant's right not to be required to give evidence against himself: the privilege against self incrimination.

The article presents a study on the criminal history of released prisoners. Here is an aspect of penal administration which requires development, because researchers have not yet acquired the knowledge of human behavior which permits adequate prognosis by other means. The identification departments of penal institutions are not quite as fortunate as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.). While the latter maintains a running inventory, so to speak, of the criminal history of all serious offenders at least, the penal institution does not. Its files contain for each prisoner, thanks to the cooperation of the F.B.I., the history of the prisoner up to his present commitment and provides therefore largely a retrospective view. The exploratory survey was designed merely to test the utility of the fingerprint file for further analysis. It is undeniable that even the limited information available in an institutional file is worth more detailed study, taking account of racial factors, type of offense, age groupings, geographic dispersion, residence and perhaps other factors recorded in the file or deducible from the record.

The article presents information on examining suspects through the method of finger-prints in clay. Where men are and where men have been there occur various traces, or tracks. The traces to be considered here are of a single kind, impressions of the fingers' on things which have been handled or touched. A finger may leave its imprint as a transferred film of natural skin secretions or of some other medium with which the finger has been smeared, and if the digit is pressed into a plastic substance such as clay its impression is then in the form of a mould, shallow or deep in accord with variable conditions of imprinting. At least some of the figures were cast in moulds, and the manufacturing significance of the indent of a thumb or finger is readily apparent. In so casting a small head the most natural procedure would be to use a digit in pressing the soft clay into the mould. In many specimens the finger imprints lack signs of the skin ridges, as if rubbing had effaced them or the clay were not of optimum consistency and texture to register these details.

The article presents information on the observation of Czech physiologist and histologist, Johannes Evangelista Purkinje's observation on the importance of fingerprints and other skin features in criminology. The principal objects of interest in this treatise are epidermis, hair, nails, and mucous membranes which communicate with the external surface through various apertures. Upon tactual examination, the skin is hard or soft, moist, oily, clammy, or dry, warm or cold, elastic, rigid or spongy, smooth or rough, loose or taut, pliant or non-pliant. These properties are found combined in different ways and degrees, or variously modified in different states of vital activity. It is to these properties that attention must be directed for the revealing of differences, however slight, in temperament, constitution, age, sex, or even family and nationality. In a study of this sort, the organ of touch itself, the hand, should be considered first. For when it is calloused, or when contact is made unrestrainedly and with violence, or when the attention has not been trained to perceive very delicate degrees of resistance, then there is not obtained a clear sensation of softness or hardness, elasticity or rigidity, and other characteristics of matter.

The article presents some of the police legal abstracts and notes related to criminal justice in the U.S. One of the most flagrant and brazen acts of perjury ever committed by an alleged witness is recorded in a recent decision of the Kentucky Supreme Court, "Shelton versus Commonwealth." In this case an fingerprint expert H. G. Coffey, who testified that he had found the defendant's fingerprints on a stone which had been used as a fatal weapon and also on the shoes of the deceased, stated as the basis for his qualifications as an expert that he had studied fingerprint identification at "Cook and Evans University, Sunshine Avenue, Chicago, that lie had been associated with Earl Stevens, Superintendent of the Police Identification Bureau in Detroit, and that he had also been on the payroll of the Michigan Secret Service Police, Bovine Avenue, Detroit.

The article focuses on the role of fingerprints identification in criminal investigation. In the Henry system of fingerprint classification, which is used in the United States, all fingerprint patterns are divisible into four main types: Arches, Loops, Whorls, and Composites. Each of these may be subdivided into two or more types so that at least nine patterns may be recognized. Since all fingerprints are classified into only a few pattern types, for the purpose of identification it is necessary to examine the detailed characteristics of the fingerprint. Careful observation of the ridges discloses that they are not simply a series of similar parallel lines but tend to differ from each other in various ways. The value of fingerprints as a method for identifying and convicting criminals depends to a considerable extent upon the consideration given to this type of evidence by investigating officers. The loss of valuable evidence can be prevented by cautious handling on the part of an investigator who has knowledge of the elementary principles of fingerprint identification.

The article highlights information on the result of experimental work on latent fingerprints. It is found that papillary impressions on certain surfaces were able to withstand relatively high temperatures. This suggested the possibility of detecting such impressions on objects suffering from the milder forms of fire damage. While in some instances high temperatures have the effect of causing a latent impression to wet certain surfaces and thus obscure the pattern. Further, with many surfaces it was noted that the secretion was evaporated to dryness before the pattern was obliterated. With these observations in mind, a normal latent impression was placed on a microscope slide and passed through the carbonizing flame of an improperly adjusted Bunsen burner. A layer of microscopic soot was thus laid down over the area containing the latent impression. At this stage, microscopic examinations revealed that the pattern characteristics were intact. The glass was allowed to cool and the soot finally brushed from the glass. In so doing, the latent impression was developed by the adhesion of carbon particles to the deposited secretion.

The article analyzes admissibility of fingerprints from foreign jurisdiction as a proof of prior convictions of habitual criminal. The Supreme Court of Washington in a recent case has rendered an important decision regarding fingerprints. Although the Supreme Court of Washington, do not directly provide for the admissibility of public records from sister states, provision has been made for their proof and admission by congressional enactment. It finally passes the judgment that the method of proving the identity of the appellant by introducing certified copies of the fingerprints of the defendant, and then comparing them with the known prints in the possession of the witness, was proper and in accordance with the rules of evidence as approved by the great weight of authority. It is further contended by appellant that he did not have the opportunity to confront the witnesses testifying against him, as is guaranteed to him by the State Constitution. Documentary evidence is admissible, and its admission is not in derogation of the defendant's right to meet his accusing witnesses face to face for the simple reason that a document is not a witness.

The article reports on forging or transferring fingerprints. Its object is to report on numerous tests which have been conducted to determine: if, from a practical rather than a theoretical viewpoint, fingerprints can be transferred successfully; and if minutiae exist in latent impressions which will permit differentiating between originals and forgeries prior to development; assuming that methods can be developed for examining such minutiae in situ. The claim has been made by numerous dactyloscopists that fingerprints cannot be successfully forged or transferred. It is maintained that although admittedly good forged prints can be produced, a microscopic examination of the fine detail will invariably disclose characteristic imperfections. A fingerprint forgery may be either of two types. A forgery produced by means of a replica of the friction ridge pattern of a finger. This type includes all those methods whereby a rubber stamp or other cast is obtained which is a likeness of the actual friction ridge pattern.

The article focuses on recent papers related to criminal justice administration. The paper "The Development of Latent Fingerprints with Dyestuffs," published in the March 1937, number of the journal "The Analyst," H.A. Thomas, of the Imperial Chemical Industries PLC in Manchester, England, presented the results of experiments with various basic dyestuffs for the development of latent fingerprints. In the trial of Green vs. Commonwealth, in Kentucky, which involved an identification of the defendant's fingerprints on an empty cigarette package found at the scene of a rape, a person named Hugh Coffee testified, as regards his qualifications as an expert, that he had received instructions "off and on" for two and one-half years at Northwestern University in the field of crime detectioncology. In Lambert v. State, which involved a prosecution for murder by strychnine poisoning, the trial court admitted in evidence the "Text Book of Legal Medicine and Toxicology." Upon appeal, the appellate court upheld the use of the book.

The article presents information about the development of latent fingerprints on paper. The development of latent fingerprints on paper is very difficult. Since the possibility of obtaining one or more fingerprints on paper objects in actual case work is determined by many factors, it is never easy to determine accurately the length of time after handling that identifiable fingerprints may be secured. Occasionally, on questioned documents or other paper materials, fingerprints are left which can be clearly seen and require no treatment for the purpose of any analytical study. The perspiratory secretion, which arises from the sweat glands of the skin and continuously deposited through the pores onto the friction ridges of the hands, contains 98% or more water with minute quantities or traces of sodium and potassium chlorides, lactic acid, albumin, glucose, urea, fatty acids, phosphates, carbonates, sulphates, creatine and creatinine. This secretion, along with a small quantity of sebum, which is picked up by contact of the hands with hair-producing skin, forms the somewhat transient, latent image from which a clearly visible pattern is to be derived.

The article discusses proof of finger-prints. More and more the finger-print is the criminal's greatest terror. It is a fortunate provision of nature that in his own hands the criminal thus carries the means of his own identification. If he has before been arrested and convicted, and his finger-prints are on file, the unchangeable ten rubber-stamps carried by him infallibly give him his true name and lead to a knowledge of the embarrassing incidents of his history. There are now filed away in many cities millions of these tell-tale impressions and every day new ones are added. With prints on file and a suspected person arrested, from whose hands new prints can be made, an identification follows with absolute certainty if it was from his hands that the filed prints were made. With complete prints of the two hands proof of identity is incontrovertible, but, unfortunately, proof sometimes must be made from only one print, and that print may not be clear and complete. Under this condition proof may fail or serious error may arise. Every helpful provision should be made, of course, so that the fact is proved, whatever the fact may be. Error in proof, as well as failure of proof, may arise from incomplete data or unscientific methods.

The article reviews the possibilities of alteration and obliteration with finger-prints, mainly based on the examples of criminals John Dillinger, Gus Winkler and Jack Klutas. Through the kindness of Charles M. Wilson, of the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, the writer has at hand the prints of Dillinger both before and after their partial obliteration. The first set is that recorded at Dayton, Ohio, while the second was made after his death, less than a year later. Dillinger was said to have applied acid to the finger tips, and the prints bear out the probability of defacement by a corrosive agent. The reagent had been applied to the central pattern area, evidently with the thought that by destruction of this region the identity of the patterns would be lost. In the face of known instances of finger-print obliteration, it is evident that identification workers must on occasion meet instances in which routine methods may fail in part. It does not follow, however, that standard procedures in identification lose effectiveness, or even that they are seriously hampered by any of the results of tampering which have come to light.

The article focuses on the bill recently sponsored by Pritchard H. Strong in the New York Legislature providing for the creation of a Bureau of Justice within the State Department of Law. The bill was prepared with the help of W. Earl Smith, former New York State Deputy Attorney General, and former Special Assistant to the Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice. On February 26, 1935, Pritchard stated that the committee had not yet reported the bill and that several amendments may be made. The bill stated that the Division of Investigation shall have power and it shall be its duty to investigate and detect violations of the criminal laws of the state and to collect and present and make available for presentation evidence of such violations. The Division shall establish and develop all modern means used or required in the detection of crime, which may include scientific laboratory research. The division of criminal identification shall have power and it shall be its duty to collect, file and preserve finger print records, photographs, measurements and all other records and data requisite for the identification of criminals and the keeping of proper records thereof.

The article deals with finger-prints as correlated with race and predisposition to certain conditions of disease. The account is intended as a more general discussion, embodying selected data only sufficient to illustrate the group variations in finger-prints which distinguish races, and emphasizing that it is the group representing a race rather than the individual in which such trends have been demonstrated. There is an effort to compare among races observations of all accessible traits, and finger-prints have shared this attention. Finger-tip patterns are components of the dermatoglyphics, embracing the similar patterned configurations of delicately ridged skin clothing the entire palmar and plantar surfaces. The special value of dermatoglyphics as aids in racial analysis lies not alone in their numerous and diverse points of comparison. The features are differentiated in the third and fourth months of fetal life and the configurations remain unmodified except in growth. A prime requisite for the investigation of racial differences in finger-prints, as for other features, is an adequate sampling of the populations to be compared.

The article focuses on the issue of forging of finger prints. Finger-print experts have realized that finger-prints can be forged as fingerprints are manipulated when testifying in courts. It used to be thought that a genuine finger-print is an impression from the living skin which carries a certain life-like appearance which would be difficult to imitate. Finger-print lifters has come into general use to supplant the camera where photography was difficult on account of inaccessibility of the latent. By means of a lifter made of a slightly sticky material, the impression is picked up completely and taken to the dark-room where as many photographic prints as needed are produced by using the lifted print as a negative. This is a type of transfer forgery but its no questions have been raised on it by the courts so far. While the problem of planting forged finger-prints at the site of crime is not so simple, but in practice it could be done so skillfully as to avoid detection and permit the forgeries to pass for genuine.

The article focuses on a study related to the counterfeiting of the fingerprint forging. While it comes forth that a counterfeit print may be indistinguishable from an original impression of the same digit, a more clear picture of evidence is to be desired. Apart from the identification involved, the study also included trials of various methods of manufacture of counterfeit prints or casts. The test does not offer a precise parallel to the circumstances of a finger-print ascertainment in actual practice. The experiment is just short of one item which would be available in a case under investigation called genuine prints to offer service as a standard for comparison. It is of course impossible to assess how the results might have been changed by supplying such prints, but if their absence proved a handicap in the test, the favoring circumstances noted at least some compensation. The results of this test points against acceptance of the common announcement that a counterfeit finger-print would be inescapable and could be recognized.

The article presents a discussion on scientific evidence in criminal cases. The science of personal identification by means of finger-prints is based upon the fact that no two individuals have exactly the same arrangement and formation of the papillary ridges of the finger-tips. These ridges, which produce the finger-print impressions, are discernible in the early stages of fetal life, and except for a shrinkage in old age the finger-print pattern and its minute distinctive characteristics remain the same until complete decomposition after death. There is usually a sufficient amount of moisture (salts, water, and fatty substances secreted by sweat glands) on a person's finger-tips so that when they come in contact with an object, such as a door knob, a window pane, a weapon, etc., an imprint is made of the papillary ridges (and sweat pores). Ordinarily such impressions are visible to the naked eye of a trained observer, and may be photographed in their natural state. When they are not sufficiently clear, developing powders may be used to fully disclose these characteristic features.

The article discusses international exchange of fingerprints. The Division of Investigation, which in March, 1932, announced the initiation of a program designed to effect a more Liberal international exchange of fingerprints, points out that the developments attending this exchange of identifying data have been so satisfactory that it has enlarged this activity to include all foreign countries desiring to cooperate therein, as well as all law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada which contribute fingerprints regularly to the Division. The Division is of the opinion that to provide for a more comprehensive identification service further efforts must be made to ascertain whether the persons whose fingerprint cards are referred to the Division have criminal records in foreign countries, It is felt that the development of this international exchange of fingerprints should prove to be a further step in the cause of effective law enforcement, insure the regular receipt of criminal records of Americans arrested in foreign countries, and also provide for the completion of the records of citizens or natives of other countries, who may be taken into custody in the United States.

This section presents abstracts of studies on police science. "Rapid Microprocedure for Determination of Mercury in Biological and Mineral Materials," by Dorothy Polley and V.L. Miller from the July 1955 issue of "Analytical Chemistry." "Microreflectivity Analysis of Coal," by J.T. McCartney and L.J.E. Hofer from the August 1955 issue of "Analytical Chemistry." "Photomicrography," by J.M. Martina from the December 1955 issue of "Fingerprint and Identification Magazine." "Equipment Needed by the Scientific Crime Scene Investigator," by M.S. Grabowski from the December 1955 issue of "Fingerprint and Identification Magazine." "Further Developments in the Chromatographic Analysis of Dried Ink," by E. Martin from the October 1955 issue of "International Criminal Police Review." "Petty Thieving," by J.K. McLellon from the October-December 1955 issue of "The Police Journal." "Electronics and Traffic Control," by P.W. Rice from the November 1955 issue of "Traffic Digest and Review."

This article focuses on the methods of falsifying fingerprints and the recognition of these possibilities in technical identification. Use of ink fingerprinting for identification purposes appears to be an age old custom. However, ancient literature is not entirely clear whether the patterns of papillary lines played a role in it, although one certainly finds that fingerprints were being placed upon deeds. If this fact had been stated anywhere, it surely would now be known exactly how these prints served for identification in those early times. Fingerprints has become a weapon in the combat against crime. However, attempts of imitation of fingerprints were to be foreseen, to sidetrack the police of even to incriminate an innocent person. A fingerprint may well prove a success if on the usual thorough routine inspection it would pass as genuine; eventually also in regard to its placing. But no sooner is its genuineness suspected, and consequently the fingerprint examined with all the scientific devices that are not ordinarily available for routine examination, than it becomes doubtful as to whether a forgery could go undetected.

This article focuses on the operations of the laboratory section of the California State Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. The Director of the Department is the Attorney General of California. Approximately 280 persons are employed in the Fingerprint, Record, Special Services, Investigation, and Laboratory sections of this Bureau. First established in 1905 by the State Legislature as a central depository for fingerprints, the Bureau was discontinued in 1909, due to the fact that no money was appropriated for its operation. In 1917 the State Legislature re-established the Bureau. The laboratory conducts examinations and comparisons of all types of physical evidence involved in criminal cases in the State of California, with the exception of questioned documents and latent fingerprints. A Polygraph Specialist is also attached to the Special Services Section of the Bureau, and a soundproof room is provided for the interrogation of persons suspected of having committed criminal offenses. The space devoted to the Laboratory Section consists of five rooms, having a total floor space of approximately 1200 square feet. These rooms include an office and library, evidence storage room, shop for glass blowing and tool work.

This article recounts the finger print identification process employed in the investigation of the Ruxton murders in Scotland in 1935. On October 1, the investigator was instructed to go to Dumfrieshire to analyze bundles of human remains that have been found on the Edinburgh-Moffat road. Some portions were on a small trestle table in an appalling condition: Decomposed flesh, a black mass seething with maggots, with an overpowering stench. Space being very limited, only a very preliminary examination could be made there. All the remains were removed to Edinburgh University for more detailed examination. No digital or palmar impressions could then be taken, due to the state of the flesh. The wife and maid of Ruxton of Lancaster, England had not been seen for some days. At Ruxton's house, the investigator found thirty nine sets of digital and palmar impressions, and were identified later as those of Mary Rogerson. On November 4, 1935, a right forearm and hand was found in bracken on the roadside a few hundred yards from where the other remains had been thrown over into the stream. A powerful magnifying lens with a light inside was used. Having an aperture in the side, it allowed of the adoption of this process. A very small spotting brush was dipped in ether and the derm lifted, similar in action to that of a plough.

This article presents abstracts of researches on police science. A study on the identification of gasoline coloring agents was published in the journal "Archiv f¨r Kriminologie." It presented a differentiation of comparatively small amounts of gasoline sampled from filling stations on the basis of coal tar dye mixtures used to color motor fuel. The coated plate chromatography of Stahl was used to separate the dyes after preliminary removal of impurities by column chromatography. Meanwhile, three reagents for developing or intensifying fingerprints deposited by bloody fingers are suggested in the journal "Nordisk Kriminalteknisk Tidskrift." These reagents are leuchomalachite green, benzidine and dianisidine. For prints on absorbent, porous surfaces acetone or ethyl alcohol are suitable solvents. On hard surfaces, however, the more volatile ether is a better solvent since the ridge structure is then not so likely to spread and diffuse the print. On the other hand, five cases are described in the journal report entitled Fatal Accidents Due to Auto-erotic Experimentation. In all cases a plastic bag had been used cover the head and in a few cases a volatile agent such as cleaning fluid or ether also been inhaled.

The article presents technical abstracts and notes from the field of police science. Some of these are: Radiation Hazards of Radioactive Isotopes in Fire Emergencies--The International Association of Fire Chiefs have prepared a report of the hazards and personnel protections necessary in combating fires where radioactive isotopes are involved. The Decimal System of Classifying Single Finger Prints--The decimal system of classifying single fingerprints in the Identification Bureau of the State Police at Sao Paulo, Brazil is described in the Fingerprint Magazine. This system, developed by Roberto Thut, has been in use since 1935. It is based on combinations of numerals according to the fundamental types and sub-types of finger print patterns in our ten-finger system of classification. Checkwriter--A brief but informative discussion of identification problems involving checkwriters appears in the Bulletin of the Bureau of Criminal Identification of the New York State Police. Identification of the make of checkwriter from its work and of the individual machine through its operating defects is described and clearly illustrated.

This article reports that the problem of developing latent fingerprints on an oily surface was encountered when a bottle was recently brought to the Bureau of Identification. It contained mineral oil, some of which had been spilled on the outside, and had apparently been handled by a burglar. Attempts to develop the prints by standard methods failed. These prints were faintly visible when viewed with oblique light, hut it was not possible to obtain clear photographs of them. Iodine fuming and treatment with 5% silver nitrate were attempted with no success. Finally, a method of using photographic paper, which had been fixed in hypo was tried with no real success. After a discussion of this method between the writers the following satisfactory technique was devised for lifting prints in experimental problems. Though it may be used on any print on a fairly smooth surface like glass, wood, or metal, the results have been found very gratifying when used for lifting prints on an oily surface. The fingertips were wiped with cloth saturated in motor oil, and the bulb was then firmly grasped leaving these oily prints. This was left till the following day when it was photographed, and then the prints developed by the new method to give comparative results. In both instances results obtained were superior to those obtained by photography.

The article presents notes related to various methods used by police for identification of crime. One article entitled "A Method of Reproducing Footmarks, etc., from Certain Objects," describes a procedure for obtaining reproductions of footprints and similar traces from linoleum, cloth, etc., which are difficult to photograph in situ, because of the underlying pattern or immovability of the object. A new process for the fixation of latent fingerprints developed with iodine vapor has been devised by Dr. M. Wagenaar. It involves the use of a specially prepared paper with a sensitized coating, which is placed over the developed print like a lifting tape, and to which the papillary picture is transferred. Scientific investigators frequently have occasion to use polarized light as an aid in the examination and identification of various materials. A new polarizing material in plate form is now available, in unlimited sizes, which is as easy to use as an ordinary color filter. The plate consists of a cellulose film containing sub-microscopic dichroic crystals oriented in such a way that the entire film acts as a single crystal.

The article informs that with increasing frequency news items in the daily press note that wills are being offered for probate identified only by the testator's fingerprints in lieu of the usual written signature. Fingerprints serve as very valuable and accurate marks of identification, whether they be from a body living or dead. The exclusiveness of the pattern configuration identifies the body possessing it. But when fingerprints are used as signatures the situation is vastly different, due to the inherent nature of a signature and the sharp contrast between the physical requirements incident to writing and those for registering a fingerprint. Any mark made with the intent of recording assent to a proposition is a signature. The mark may be nothing more than the common cross used by the illiterate, but when properly attested it is as binding as the written name with all its flourishes. A person may write his name, make his cross, or impress his fingermark a thousand times without making his signature. Unless there is intent to register assent or to make some acknowledgment the writing is not a signature. It is obvious, therefore, that intent and assent are elements distinguishing a signature from an ordinary writing. Intent and assent require conscious life; they also require mental capacity to choose between assenting and dissenting, to sign or not to sign, and an exercise of the will to do or to refrain from doing.

This article presents abstracts of articles on criminal law, criminology and police science. In the article, Analysis of Auto Thefts by Means of Keinzie Route Recorders, by Fritz Jahn, published in the November 1955 issue of Kriminalistik, it was reported that a truck equipped with a route recorder was stolen, and the cargo removed at a secret place. Upon recovery of the vehicle, the route record was studied with respect to a local map. Records of velocity, stops, and elapsed time permitted the successful location of goods and thieves. In the article, New Fingerprint Method Gives Underworld the Jitters, by Philip L. Lorraine, published in the July 1955 issue of The Nongqai, the ninhydrin method of developing latent fingerprints is discussed. The article relates several cases in Sweden in which this method was used and the favorable results. The reaction of ninhydrin on the amino-acids in perspiration results in pink patterns. The method is simple. Spray the paper or document with a 0.2 percent solution of ninhydrin in acetone and bake in an oven at 80° Centigrade for three minutes. At this time if any latents are present they will become visible as pink patterns. As the process matures, the patterns become more intense and should reach maximum legibility a day or two after the treatment. The author failed to state whether a restoration method had been developed when ninhydrin was used.