Aging fingerprints?

[kimba325]

Interesting article:

http://blogs.forbes.com/alexknapp/2011/ ... rprint-is/

If anyone has access to the journal they are referencing, I would love to see the research article and find out if it is more detailed about the research.

[Gerald Clough]

The last line was probably the most useful, speculating its use as a nondestructive imaging technique. The fly in the aging ointment is that, while they can watch the charge (or its response to the probe's induction of a charge - can't tell which is being measured without the article) fading over time, a single snapshot would have told them very little, since they would have had no information about the initial charge. They could, of course, have made a guess on the basis of experience with many controlled samples. But that kind of age guessing would be no better and perhaps less reliable then an experienced examiner's guess and is already out of play as unreliable. A sophisticated means of measuring moisture or certain volatile oils might produce the same sort of guesses. As a means of determining age, it's only the technology that's new. We've always been able, in many cases, to form an age guess that falls short of a confident opinion, and I suspect we're very often actually correct.

[g.]

Kimba (and others)

I have access to FSI journal (it's a great journal with all of the articles readily available in .pdf and some articles have additional online content and appendices, etc.). Well worth a subscription. I find a lot of international researchers publishing there, so it definitely exposes you to the most current research going on around the world.

If anyone would like a copy of this article (or other articles) for personal use, contact me offline.

g.

(glenn.langenburg@state.mn.us)

[Neville]

Hi Guys
Is it the police in Poland or Holland who have an extensive data base covering decades of how to age a latent fingerprint?

I once did research on this subject and it is possible within certain conditions to age a print. Whamo that will upset many of you. But it is true. I know you will bring up endless examples of fingerprints inside or out in the desert or Ninhydrin examples and all are valid; however I did say it is possible within certain conditions to age a print. And for those of you who want to bore me with the Adelaide example I will remind you that it is the driest city in the driest state in the driest continent in the world plus it was under an extensive over hang, protecting it from sun and rain?

I also realised that it could be measured with the right methods, but first you would have to be able to know what the latent fingerprint composition was, if you had a way of knowing that it was only made up of say 99% water......

One example I liked to use in court was "if there was a drop of water on the kitchen window sill how long would it last" you can see the lights go on in the eyes of the women in the jury, my job is done they are now thinking! Or for the men on a car bonnet! Sexist I know but it worked for me.

But for all of that I do agree with what you say Gerald and at the very least it is a new way to develop latents on a surface that can sometimes be challenging and lengthy.