Fingerprints collected from a crime scene, or from items of evidence from a crime, can be used in forensic science to identify suspects, victims and other persons who touched the surface in question. Fingerprint identification emerged as an important system within various police agencies in the late 19th century. This system replaced anthropometric measurements as a more reliable method for identifying persons having a prior record, often under an alias name, in a criminal record repository. The science of fingerprint identification stands out among all other forensic sciences for many reasons because of its superiority and reliability.
Worldwide, fingerprinting has served all governments during the past 100 years to provide accurate identification of criminals. No two fingerprints have ever been found alike in the billions of human and automated computer comparisons. Fingerprints have become the very basis for criminal history foundation at almost every police agency.
The first forensic professional organization, the International Association for Identification (IAI), was established in 1915. It established the first professional certification program for forensic scientists, the IAI’s Certified Latent Print Examiner program in 1977, issuing certification to those meeting stringent criteria and revoking certification for serious errors such as erroneous identifications.
Fingerprints remain the most commonly used forensic evidence the world over. In most jurisdictions, fingerprint examination cases outnumber all other forensic examination casework combined. It continues to expand as the premier method for identifying persons, with tens of thousands of persons added to fingerprint repositories daily in America alone – far outdistancing similar databases in growth. Fingerprinting has outperformed DNA and all other human identification systems to identify more murderers, rapists and other serious offenders (fingerprints solve ten times more unknown suspect cases than DNA in most jurisdictions).
Although some reporters and authors claim that fingerprints have long enjoyed a mystique of infallibility, the opposite is true. Fingerprint identification was the first forensic discipline in 1977 to formally institute a professional certification program for individual experts, including a procedure for decertifying those making any investigative errors. Other forensic disciplines later followed suit in establishing certification programs whereby certifications could be revoked for any error found.
Fingerprint identifications lead to far more positive identifications of persons worldwide daily than any other human identification procedure. The American federal government alone effects positive identification of over 70,000 persons. A large percentage of the identifications, approximately 92% of US Visit identifications, are affected in lights-out, no human involved computer identification process with 100% accuracy based on only two fingerprints.
By: Elizabeth Morgan
Fingerprinting in Forensic Science
by adminHigh School Science Fair Topics For a Winning Science Project
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High school science fair topics are known to be difficult; the competition is fierce, the judges expect more, and the project often counts for a percentage of your grade. For these reasons, you want to do high school science experiments that will cause the judges to take notice.
One way to decide on a topic is to look at problems in the world around you and try to explain them or even solve the problems. Demonstrations and models are generally not accepted in high school, as you are expected to use the scientific method within your experiment and explain your results in report form. It can be a challenge to come up with a science experiment topic suitable for your education level, but with a little work you should be able to come up with an appropriate experiment that interests you.
One science fair project suitable for high school would be to test and see if a black light is able to pick up invisible stains around your house. Another is to find out if insects are attracted to lamps at night because of the light or the heat. Another idea would be to see which brand of anti-freeze is the safest for the environment. You could also find out if different brands of orange juice contain different levels of Vitamin C, and does the level of vitamin C in orange juice change over time?
If you are a girl and you like to dye your hair, maybe you could experiment and see which brand of hair color holds its color the longest. You could go a step farther and see if previous treatments such as a perm or straightening will affect how long the color will stay in your hair. If you know someone with gray hair, you could test the brands that claim to cover grays and see how well they really do their job.
By: Dee Schrock
Kids’ Science – Gravity For Beginners
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Here’s a science activity for kids that offers basic exposure to density and the law of gravity. It also gives your child an opportunity to engage in the trial and error method of problem solving. It’s very simple and lots of fun.
You’ll be making a miniature version of hot air balloons. Each balloon should take about one minute to make. Your child will love helping to put the hot air balloons together.
Here’s what to do:
Pick up helium balloons from your community party supply store. You’ll need one balloon for each participant.
For the basket part of the hot air balloon, use a paper cup or 12″ x 12″ felt square. If you use a paper cup, tape three pieces of string to the top of the cup, and then tie the string to the base of the balloon. If you use a felt square, tie each of the four corners and attach those to the base of the balloon. (If you want to go a step further, for a more realistic looking basket cut off the bottom four inches of an empty bag of specialty coffee and rinse it out-the material is perfectly suited for this activity.)
Your living room is the perfect location to get started.
The objective: fill the basket with just enough household items to cause the balloon to hover for ten seconds without touching the ceiling. The items might include marbles, buttons, bottle caps and Q-Tips. Put these items in a bowl for selection. Keep a pair of scissors handy–as your child fine tunes the density it may become necessary to cut a Q-Tip in half.
Consider the following variation: put all the items in a line for selection. Take turns selecting one item until each person has ten. Place items into balloon baskets and launch the balloons. The objective is to have your balloon float slowest to the ceiling. In order to improve results, each person may exchange one of their items for a new item. Re-launch the balloons. Continue the process of exchanging one item after each launch. Keep experimenting until one player causes a balloon to hover for ten seconds.
There are many other variations to this science activity that you can pursue on your own (–for example, log the difference in items used from one day to the next as the balloons lose helium). Regardless of how you go about it, this activity will give your child an opportunity to engage in trial and error problem solving while gaining basic exposure to density and the law of gravity. You may also find it surprisingly adept at bringing out the fidget and tinker nature of parents. Have fun!
By: Anthony Vecchioni
