Capture and analysis of latent marks

Abstract

The capture and analysis of latent marks in forensics has a history of over a century. The focus of this chapter is on the marks formed by fingerprint patterns. The process starts with the detection and acquisition of the marks using different physical, chemical and optical means. Additionally, experimental approaches for determining the age or exploiting the finger mark persistency, as well as digital enhancement techniques are described. Afterward, the analysis is performed in four steps. Here, features on three different levels are determined, evaluated and compared between two fingerprint patterns. The result of such a comparison, also known as dactyloscopy, is nowadays either an identification, exclusion or inconclusive. In the future those outcomes might be replaced with a likelihood ratio which allows for expressing uncertainties on a statistical foundation. In order to use new methods in court, particular requirements must be assessed. For this, the Daubert challenge, which includes the assessment of several factors by a judge, is briefly summarized.