What fingermarks reveal about activities

Dissertation concerning the evaluation of fingermarks given activity level propositions to determine what fingermarks reveal about activities.

Fingermarks have proven to play an important role in forensic science. Based on the ridge detail information present in a fingermark, individualization or exclusion of a donor is possible by comparing a fingermark obtained from a crime scene to a reference fingerprint of a suspect or a reference fingerprint present in a database. In this process, the intrinsic features of a fingermarkare used to determine the sourceof the fingermark. However, in some cases, the sourceofa fingermark is not argued but the activity that led to the deposition of the fingermark. The question changes from ‘Who left the fingermark?’ to ‘How did the fingermark end up on the surface?’ which requires a different assessment of the findings. The aim of this dissertation What fingermarks reveal about activities is to determine how fingermarks could provide information about activities in a reliable way, in order to be used in the forensic evidence process.