Further Readings
Earnst, K., Wadley, V., Aldridge, T., Steenwyk, A.,
Hammond, A., Harrell, L., et al. (2001). Loss of financial
capacity in Alzheimer’s disease: The role of working
memory. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition,
8,109–119.
Griffith, H. R., Belue, K., Sicola, A., Krzywanski, S.,
Zamrini, E., Harrell, L. E., et al. (2003). Impaired
financial abilities in mild cognitive impairment: A direct
assessment approach. Neurology, 60,449–457.
Marson, D. C., Sawrie, S. M., Snyder, S., McInturff, B.,
Stalvey, T., Boothe, A., et al. (2000). Assessing financial
capacity in patients with Alzheimer’s disease: A
conceptual model and prototype instrument. Archives of
Neurology, 57,877–884.Note:The FCI is owned by the UAB Research Foundation
(UABRF) and is currently available as an instrument for clini-
cal research. A commercial version of the FCI will be made
available by the UABRF in late 2007 or 2008.FINGERPRINTEVIDENCE,
EVALUATION OF
Fingerprints and other friction ridges of the skin have a
persistent structure that often leaves characteristic evi-
dence at crime scenes. Latent print examiners compare
this evidence with inked copies of friction ridge skin
from a known suspect to determine whether these two
patterns originate from the same source. This examina-
tion process uses computer databases for initial screen-
ing, but all evidence presented in court is based on
human comparisons. Experts must establish their cre-
dentials in order to testify, and recent vision science
work has suggested that experts possess visual mecha-
nisms that novices do not. However, these experts have
also shown evidence of biases, and critics have begun
to question the evidentiary value of fingerprints.Sources of Evidence
Impressions left by volar skin, or the ridged skin of
the palmar surfaces of hands and fingers and plantar
surfaces of feet and toes, play a major role in forensic
science. Commonly known as fingerprints, palm
prints, or footprints, recordings of this skin are often
used as a form of physical evidence to link a person to
a particular item or location, such as a crime scene.Perspiration, oil, blood, or other substances are often
present on the skin and are deposited on surfaces such
as plastic, wood, metal, or glass during touches, which
might leave a recording of details of the ridge, crease,
scar, and imperfection patterns from the skin. The evi-
dence is recovered using a variety of development
techniques to make the latent image, or undeveloped
print, visible. These include powders, cyanoacrylate
glue, chemicals, or stains that adhere to or react with
the residues of the print. A variety of different lights
and filters can also be used to visualize a latent print.
The basic challenge of fingerprint (more formally
known as friction ridge) evidence derives from the fact
that any latent print recovered from a crime scene will
vary in appearance from every other latent print and
from every standard print. A standard print can be
obtained using a variety of techniques, from black-
inked prints on a white card to electronic imaging of the
volar surfaces. The intent of the standard recording is to
obtain a clear set of prints from a known-source indi-
vidual for comparison with the unknown-source latent
prints. In some cases, these variations in appearances
are trivial, and the match between an unknown latent
and known inked print appears obvious. However,
latent or standard prints with low quality or quantity of
details are a challenge to examine, and thus the field of
forensic latent print examinationsuses established pro-
cedures, practices, guidelines, and methodology to sup-
port the examination of latent prints.
Friction ridge skin develops its structure in utero by
means of biological, chemical, and physical processes
of pattern formation known as reaction-diffusion. This
process ensures that ridges form in a roughly parallel
configuration and tend to orient orthogonally to lines
of stress that occur during the fetal development of
structures known as volar pads in fingers, palms, soles,
and toes. The resulting ridges form patterns of loops,
whorls, and arches in the pads of the developing finger
tip (distal phalanges). Additional structure is provided
by the development of ridges that form bifurcations
and ridge endings, or minutiae. These minutiae are
often coded when fingerprints are entered into com-
puter databases such as the Integrated Automated
Fingerprint Identification System, maintained by the
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The interactions of chemistry, physics, and biology
in pattern formation in nature support the belief within
science that no two natural patterns will ever be
exactly alike. All the internal and external develop-
mental noise, interactions, and timings that occur will318 ———Fingerprint Evidence, Evaluation ofF-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:42 PM Page 318