Fingerprints in Criminal Investigation
| Published date | 01 July 1940 |
| Author | M. Edwin O'Neill |
| Date | 01 July 1940 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4001300309 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Fingerprints in Criminal Investigation
By M.
EDWIN
O'NEILL
Chicago Police Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory
THIS brief article has been prepared primarily for the
benefit of criminal investigators who are not already
familiar with the elementary principles of fingerprint identi-
fication.
It
is also intended to be of use to investigators who
may have some knowledge of fingerprint evidence
but
who
are, nevertheless, unaware of many of the possibilities and
limitations involved in the examination of chance impressions
left at the scene of a crime.
WHAT
Is A
FINGERPRINT?
The
skin covering the palms of the hands and the soles of
the feet, unlike the skin on other parts of the body, is elevated
into minute ridges which tend to follow patterns of definite
design. (See Figure I.) Such skin is
called"
friction
skin"
and the ridges are commonly referred to as papillary
ridges.
On the tips of the fingers the papillary ridges form definite
patterns which may be of the same general form on all of the
fingers of the two hands or may differ from one finger to the
next, with several or all of the recognised patterns represented
in the same individual. These patterns may be described and
classifiedin various ways, depending upon the system used for
the recording and filing of inked impressions.
In
the Henry
system of fingerprint classification, all fingerprint patterns are
divisible into four main types: Arches, Loops, Whorls, and
Composites.
These types may be simply described as follows: Arch
patterns are those in which the ridges
run
across the finger tip
from one side to the other without recurving, and are usually
slightly raised near the centre, presenting an arch-like
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