FUNDAMENTALS OF

DACTYLOSCOPY

CHRISTIAN G. DOMINGO, MCJ, CST

Lecturer/Facilitator
 ETYMOLOGY OF DACTYLOSCOPY
• DACTYLOSCOPY - originated from a Greek word “dactyl” means “finger” and “skopein”
means “copy or print.”

• DACTYLOSCOPY - the science of fingerprint identification.

Fingerprinting is a method of identification of an individual through the use

of the impression made by the ridge formation found in the terminal part
of the fingers. According to study, fingerprint will start to develop during
3rd to 4th month of fetal life of a person and continue to exist until
decomposition due to death.

Fingerprinting as a means of identification is a positive science. It cannot be

forged and cannot be easily obliterated.
 HOW FINGERPRINTS FORMED?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX6hFXHDmk4 (origin of
fingerprint)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZL7OpFq0fw (how fingerprints

formed)
Several known criminals however have tried to efface their fingerprint to
cancel their identities either by burning them with acid or surgically
removing them, but both were in vain. The science of fingerprinting has
gone far beyond in the world of forensics. Today, the use of fingerprinting
had invaded not only in the government agency but in private sectors as
well.

Law enforcement agencies worldwide however had never ceased to unveil

the true science of fingerprint and had recently introduced the
Automated Fingerprint Identification System. The AFIS is a computer
based identification system that stored collected from individuals when
one applies for police clearance. Moreover, AFIS will not only store record
cards in computer memory, but it will also match latent fingerprints from
crime scene to its data bank.
 ATTEMPTS TO EFFACE
FINGERPRINTS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn-2ZEIl494 (man w/o fingerprint)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M_3r85Nwgo (how to change

fingerprint
 IMPORTANCE OF FINGERPRINT

1. Prevent impersonation
2. Speedy identification of a wrongdoer
3. Serve to give evidence
4. Help to identify victims of disasters, calamities, floods, etc.
5. Identify bodies whose cadavers are beyond recognition
6. Aid the judiciary in penal treatment
7. Prevent criminal substitution of the newly born.
UNIQUENESS OF FINGERPRINT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-OI95dpNSM (why are

gingerprints unique)
 Can a person be forced to be fingerprinted?
Yes. The authority is vested in the Opinion No. 204 series of 1939
made by the former secretary of justice JOSE ABAD SANTOS.The
opinion substantially said:

"As long as the person is under legal arrest he can be forced to be

fingerprinted.A person under arrest who refuses to be
fingerprinted may be prosecuted by disobedience to the agent of
the person in authority defined in, and penalized by Article 151
of the Revised Penal Code"
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS
Biblicial Basis
Job XXXVI, verse 7 - "He sealeth the hand of every man and all
may know his work."
Kings IIIX, verse 34-37 - "See now this cursed woman and bury her
for she is a kings daughter. And they went to bury her, but they
found no more of her than the skull, and the feet and the palms
of her hands so they shall not say this is Jezebel"
2nd Century A.D. - ancient potters did on many occasions leave
fingerprints on clay.
Nova Scotia - picture writing of the hand with ridge patterns was discovered.

Ancient Babylon - fingerprints were used on clay tablets for business

transactions.

T'ang Dynasty (8th century) - fingerprints were used as identifying marks on

legal contracts. Thumbprints were also found on clay seals.

Persia (14th century) - various government papers had fingerprints.

Middle East - fingerprint was used to identify criminal confession and record
business transactions.

Japanese - also credited as one of the early explorer of fingerprint.

 HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS
Personalities behind Dactyloscopy
NEHEMIAH GREW (1684) - a fellow of Royal Society who have surfaced the European
countries when a lecture was given which introduced several ridge patterns of fingerprints.
His study however, was purely anatomical in nature.

MARCELO MALPHIGI (1686) - an Italian physician whose study further beneath the surface of
the fingerprints and introduced the ridges, spirals, and loops in fingerprints. One of the
layers of the skin was named after him called, "Stratum Malphigi" which is approximately
1.8mm thick.
J C Mayer (1798) - of Germany theorized that the arrangement of friction ridge is unique.

Prof. Johannes Evangelist Purkinje (1823) - a Czechoslovakian physiologist who describes and
illustrates fingerprint ridge formation into nine different types; Transverse Curve, Central
Longitudinal Stria, Oblique Stripe, Oblique Loop, Almont Loop, Spiral Whorl, Ellipse, Circle
and the Double Loop Whorl. However his study was considered anatomical, he made no
mention of individuals being identified by the pattern that he described but recommended
for futher research.
William James Herschel (1858) - a Chief Magistrate of Jungipoor India who work on the
pensioners claim through the use of fingerprint as a form of signature in order to prevent
fraud. Later than 1877, he took his own fingerprints and noted that no change had occurred
them for over 50 years.
Dr. Henry Faulds (1880) - concluded that fingerprint patterns are unchangeable and that
superficial injury of the fingers did not alter them, they returned to their former design as the
injury healed.

Sir Francis Galton (1892) - an English anthropologist provides an in-depth study of fingerprinting
that included the system of classification to facilitate handling voluminous amount of collected
fingerprints. Known for the Galton's System of Fingerprint
Juan Vucetich - an Argentina police who first to put the Galton's System of Classification into
practice.

1891 - devised his own system of fingerprint classification called "Icnofalagometrico“

July 1982 - first success of vucetich after conviction by means of fingeprrint evidence against
Francisca Rojas who murdered her two children.
1894 - Argentinian Police Force become the first in the world to adopt fingerprints as a
principal means of identifying criminals.
Edward Richard Henry (1897) - an Inspector General of Bengal Police who adopted his
own system of classification called Henry System Classification.

1902 - first British court conviction through the use of fingerprint against Harry
Jackson for a crime of Burglary.

The Henry System Classification is being widely used by police forces and prison
authorities throughout the world to date.
Thomas Bewick - a person who used fingerprint as his signature by engraving them in
a wooden plate.

Eugene Francois Vidocq - introduced method of identifying criminals by memory

(photographic eye).

Adolphe Quetelet - developed a theory that there was one to four chance of any two
adult persons having the same height.
Thomas Taylor - introduced the new system of palmistry. Cited the use of the
palms of the hand that can be used in identifying criminals.

Herman Welcker - took his own print of his right palm and 41 yrs. later took
another print of the same hand and found out that prints do not change.

John Dillinger - a known criminal who tried to effaced his fingerprint by

burning with acid, but to no avail.

Roscoe James Pitt (aka Robert Phillips) - a man who was once considered as a
man without fingerprint. He surgically removed the fingerprint of his first
joint and covered it with another skin form his chest. His effort however turn
futile.
 BASIC CONCEPTS
• DACTYLOSCOPY - originated from Greek word “dactyl” means finger and
“skopein” means copy or print.

• DACTYLOSCOPY - the science of fingerprint identification. It relies on the

analysis and classification of patterns observed in individual prints.
Fingerprints are made of series of ridges and furrows on the surface of a
finger; the loops, whorls, and arches formed by those ridges and furrows
generally follow a number of distinct patterns.

• DACTYLOLOGY - The use of the fingers and hands to communicate and

convey ideas, as in the manual alphabet used by hearing-impaired and
speech-impaired people.
 ALLIED SCIENCES OF DACTYLOSCOPY

1. CHIROSCOPY - the science of that deals with the study of palm print in
relation to identification.

2. PODOSCOPY - the science that deals with the study of sole of human
foot for identification purposes.

3. POROSCOPY - the science that deals with the study of human pores or
sweat gland.
 DOGMATIC PRINCIPLES OF FINGERPRINT
1. PRINCIPLE OF INDIVIDUALITY - "no two persons have the same fingerprint
patterns"

2. PRINCIPLE OF PERMANENCY - fingerprint of an individual remains

unchangeable until one losses his life and decomposed. Fingerprint started
to develop at 3rd embryonic period of fetal life. Also called as "Principle of
Womb to Tomb"

3. PRINCIPLE OF INFALLABILITY - fingerprint is reliable, it cannot be forged.

Also called as "positive science".
 TWO LAYERS OF THE SKIN

1. Epidermis - the upper or the outer layer of the skin,is

a tough, waterproof, protective layer.

2. Dermis - the lower or the inner layer of the skin. It is

made up mainly of fibrous proteins and other large
molecules.
 KINDS OF SWEAT GLANDS
1. Eccrine Glands - these are found in all parts of the body and are the
only sweat glands found on the palms of the hands and the soles of
the feet.

2. Apocrine Glands - those are found in the pubic, mammary and anal
areas.

3. Sebaceous Glands - these are located on the forehead, chest back

and abdomen with an oily secretion called sebum.
TWO COMPONENT PARTS OF THE FRICTION SKIN

1. Ridge - are tiny elevation or hill

like structure.

2. Furrows - are the depression or

canal base between ridges.
 The Ridge Characteristics
1. Bifurcation - one single ridge that split into two or more
branches or the forking or the splitting of one ridge into two
branches.(If the forking consists of three branches it is called
trifurcation.)

2. Ridge Enclosure - a ridge formed by a bifurcation but which

does not remain open, after running along side by side for a
short distance,the splitting ridge meet again to form a single
ridge.
3. Ridge Ending - a point where the ridge terminates or ends.
4. Ridge Bridge - a ridge that connects one ridge to the other, it is sometimes
called "railways tie".
5. Diverging Ridge - is the splitting apart of two ridges after running parallel.
6. Converging Ridge - the meeting of two ridge after running parallel.
7. Ridge Hook or Spur - is a bifurcation in which one branch is remarkably short,
ending near the originally split or fork.
8. Dot - a very short island, of basically equal length and width
9. Appendage - a short ridge at the top or summit of a recurve usually at the
right angle.
10. Short Ridge - ridge which are remarkably short than the other.
11. Fragmentary Ridge - group of series of short ridges less than 3mm in length.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDKzz4in7Xg (ridge characteristics)
 TYPELINES AND PATTERN AREA
TYPE LINES - are two innermot
ridges that start parallel, diverge,
surround or tend to surround
the pattern area. Typelines are
not are not always two
continous ridges, if the type
lines experience an abrupt
ending of the ridge, the next
outside ridge shall be the
continuation.

PATTERN AREA - the area

surrounded by the typelines,
where the core, delta and ridges
are located.
FOCAL POINTS OF FINGERPRINTS
DELTA - the first obstruction at or in
front of and nearest the center of
the point of divergence of the two
typelines. Also known as the "outer
terminus"

CORE - the approximate center of the

pattern. Also known as the "inner
terminus"
 RULES GOVERNING DELTA SELECTION
1. The Delta may not be located at the bifurcation which does not open
towards the core.
2. When there is a choice between a bifurcation and another type of delta , the
bifurcation is selected.
3. If there are series of bifurcation opening towards the core, equally close to
the point of divergence of the type lines, the delta nearest to the core shall
be selected.
4. When there are two or more possible deltas which conform to the
definition, the one nearest to the core is choosen.
5. The delta may not be located in the middle of a ridge running between the
type lines towards the core but the nearer only.
 RULES GOVERNING CORE SELECTION
1. The core is placed upon or within the innermost sufficient recurve.
2. When the innermost sufficient recurve contains no ending ridge or rod
rising as high as the shoulders of the loop. The core is placed on the
shoulder of the loop farther from delta.
3. When the innermost sufficient recurve contains uneven number of rods
rising as high as the shoulders, the core is placed upon the end of the
center rod whether it touches the looping ridge or not.
4. When the innermost sufficient recurve contains an even number of rods
rising as high as the shoulders, the core is placed upon the end of the
farther one of the two center rods, the two center rods being treated as
though they were connected by a recurving ridge.
RIDGE COUNTING
➢ Ridge counting usually applies
only to a loop type of pattern.It
can be done by drawing an
imaginary line between delta and
core. The number of ridges
intervening between them is
called ridge count.Any ridge
formation which touches the
imaginary line shall be
counted.The delta and the core,
however, shall not be included in
the ridge count.
RULES GOVERNING RIDGE COUNTING

1. Fragments and dots can only be counted if they appear as

thick as the surrounding ridge.

2. If the imaginary line crosses a bifurcation, each branch shall

be counted separately.

3. White Space must intervene between the delta and the first
ridge count.
WHORL TRACING
➢ The whorl tracing are further
classified according to its whorl
tracing, either Inner, Meeting or
Outer whorl. Whorl tracing is
done by loacating or identifying
the tracing ridge and examining
its direction.
 RULES GOVERNING WHORL TRACING
1.Whorl Tracing will always start from the left delta to the right delta
2.When the tracing ridge abruptly terminates, the next lower ridge
shall be the continuation.
3.If the tracing ridge is a bifurcation, the lower branch of the
bifurcation shall be considered.
4.Trace from the farthest left delta to a point opposite the farthest
delta when there are three deltas are present.
5.In tracing double loops or accidental whorls,when the tracing
passes inside of the right delta, stop at the nearest point to the
right delta on the upward trend. If no upward trend is present ,
continue tracing until a point opposite the right delta or the delta
itself is reach.
INNER VS OUTER WHORL TRACING
EXERCISES
End of Presentation