The History of Fingerprints

Updated 24 Apr 2010

Why Fingerprint Identification?

Fingerprints offer an infallible means of personal identification. That is the essential explanation for their having supplanted other methods of establishing the identities of criminals reluctant to admit previous arrests. ¹

The science of fingerprint Identification stands out among all other forensic sciences for many reasons, including the following:   

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  Has served all governments worldwide during the past 100 years to provide accurate identification of criminals. No two fingerprints have ever been found alike in many billions of human and automated computer comparisons.  Fingerprints are the very basis for criminal history foundation at every police agency on earth.
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  Established the first forensic professional organization, the International Association for Identification (IAI), in 1915.
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  Established the first professional certification program for forensic scientists, the IAI's Certified Latent Print Examiner program (in 1977), issuing certification to those meeting stringent criteria and revoking certification for serious errors such as erroneous identifications.  
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  Remains the most commonly used forensic evidence worldwide - in most jurisdictions fingerprint examination cases match or outnumber all other forensic examination casework combined.
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  Continues to expand as the premier method for identifying persons, with tens of thousands of persons added to fingerprint repositories daily in America alone - far outdistancing similar databases in growth.
• Worldwide, fingerprints harvested from crime "scenes lead to more suspects and generate more evidence in court than all other forensic techniques combined.