Parsons, Nicholas R., Smith, J. Q., Thönnes, Elke, Wang, Li and Wilson, Roland (2008) Rotationally invariant statistics for examining the evidence from the pores in fingerprints. Law, Probability and Risk, Vol.7 (No.1). pp. 1-14. doi:10.1093/lpr/mgm018

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Abstract

Recent methodological advances in the processing of DNA evidence have begun to force a closer examination of assertions about the strength of other sorts of evidence. One traditional source of evidence is the fingerprint. Currently a print taken from a suspect is compared against a mark from a crime scene and a match declared using the judgement of an expert based on matching minutiae and the ridge patterns around these. However, such methods have proved difficult to quantify effectively. This has provoked the investigation of even finer features in the print and the mark. One set of such features are the many pores, located along the ridges of the fingerprint. Is it possible to supplement expert judgements associated with a match with a more automatic and quantitative measure of the strength of evidence, based on pore information? The results of this preliminary analysis suggest we can. Our methodology is relatively transparent, using common statistics for two sample comparisons of point patterns. The results discussed here concern the matching of inked prints using grey-level imaging and complement previous studies which tend to focus on the comparison of binarised images.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare Q Science > QA Mathematics Q Science > QM Human anatomy
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Computer Science Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences Faculty of Science > Statistics Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Fingerprints, Fingerprints -- Identification, Dermatoglyphics -- Statistical methods, Spatial analysis (Statistics), Forensic sciences
Journal or Publication Title:	Law, Probability and Risk
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	1470-8396
Official Date:	March 2008
Dates:	Date Event March 2008 Published
Volume:	Vol.7
Number:	No.1
Page Range:	pp. 1-14
DOI:	10.1093/lpr/mgm018
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	Great Britain. Forensic Science Service (FSS)

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