NCJ Number
229272
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 54 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2009 Pages: 1323-1326
Date Published
November 2009
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This paper describes an amino acid model for latent fingerprints on porous surfaces.
Abstract
The study concludes that printing amino acid solution by a bubble jet printer as a model of latent fingerprints for amino-acid-sensitive methods proved to be a good method for creating analytical standards. The resulting test items do not represent the whole reality of latent fingerprints, but it is an easy way to get test items in a fast, flexible, inexpensive way, and it provides the possibility of calculating the amino acid loading per area on individual measured data for a printing series. In contrast to applying solutions on paper using pipettes, bigger areas can be loaded homogenously because of the smaller printing drop size. Big drops tend to cause inhomogenity through the drying. In the research and development of latent fingerprint detection, a significant problems occurs due to the differences in quality and quantity of fingerprint residue. Comparing two detection methods by using two fingerprints on the same item material, the resulting difference can be caused by the methods or by the fingerprints used. In order to reduce this irregularity, the test must be repeated with more fingerprints, and the results must be analyzed statistically. This is very time-consuming and impractical at the beginning of research when a lot of different parameters are of interest. An alternative method is to work with models as artificial fingerprints. For the amino-acid-sensitive detection method, this can be achieved by coating test items with an amino acid solution, using a modified commercial office bubble jet printer. Besides low costs, fast and easy preparation, the main advantage of a bubble jet printer is that the amino acid loading per area on the test item can be calculated by weighing the cartridge on a balance. This procedure has the potential to determine the deviation for every printing series. 2 tables, 1 figure, and 4 references