I have fingerprinted in two different ways, using a stamp pad and then putting my fingerprint on a piece of paper, and leaving my fingerprints on a glass beaker and collecting my print using dust powder and putting tape over that and then onto a piece of paper. Neither of these resulted in great prints, however my prints from the stamps were significantly better.
Fingerprints are a great identifier of someone. Since everybody has different fingerprints, and people are likely to touch something while they are committing a crime, fingerprints are the perfect identifier. Additionally, fingerprints vary in every person, including identical twins. Unlike DNA, which is the same for a set of identical twins, except small changes that occur throughout each person’s lifetime (epigenetics), fingerprints are different even between identical twins. I, being an identical twin, always get asked if I can unlock my sister’s iPhone. The answer, as we know is no. Unlike DNA, our fingers have distinct fingerprints, and can easily be used to identify us.
I however, struggled with lifting my fingerprints of of a glass jar. It is very easy to leave fingerprints on an object, all you have to do it touch the object, but after that I could find my fingerprints, but they were not defined. As you can see in the picture, my fingerprint is very faint. Lifting the fingerprint was also a challenge because it was hard not to get any unwanted fingerprints on the tape in the process, because i would touch the tape and my fingerprints would get on it. Although my results may have been less than stellar, leaving the fingerprints was not difficult, because all you have to do is touch something. It’s the lifting of the fingerprints that proved to be quite difficult for me.
I learned that although shows like Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS may make it look like collecting fingerprints is easy, it’s not. I struggled to collect my fingerprints when I knew exactly where they were; I can’t imagine collecting fingerprints without even knowing where they are. I also how great of identifiers fingerprints are. Everyone has different fingerprints, in fact, every finger has it’s own fingerprint. Fingerprints are essential to forensic science, and they have allowed criminals to be brought to justice and victims to be identified.
