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                            Library & Multimedia
 Quantifying the Weight of Fingerprint Evidence Through the Spatial Relationship, Directions and Types of Minutiae Observed on Fingermarks
NCJ Number
              249324
Journal

*Forensic Science International* Volume: 248 Dated: March 2015 Pages: 154-171
Author(s)
          Cedric  Neumann;
                        Christophe  Champod;
                        Mina  Yoo;
                        Thibault  Genessay;
                        Glenn  Langenburg
Date Published

March 2015
Length
              18 pages
Annotation
              This article presents a statistical model for the quantification of the weight of fingerprint evidence.
Abstract
              Overall, the data generated during this research project supports fingerprint evidence as a valuable forensic tool for the identification of individuals.  The model's performance shows that the spatial relationship between minutiae carries more evidential weight than their type or direction. Testing results also indicate that the AFIS component of the model directly enables the assignment of weight to fingerprint evidence without the need for the additional layer of complex statistical modeling required by the estimation of the probability distributions of fingerprint features. In fact, it seems that the AFIS component is more sensitive to the sub-population effects than the other components of the model.  Contrary to previous models (generative and score-based models), the proposed model estimates the probability distributions of spatial relationships, directions, and types of minutiae observed on fingerprints for any given fingermark.  The model  relies on an AFIS algorithm provided by 3M Cogent and  a dataset of more than 4,000,000 fingerprints to represent a sample from a relevant population of potential sources. The model's performance was tested using several hundreds of minutiae configurations observed on a set of 565 fingermarks. In particular, the effects of various sub-populations of fingers (i.e., finger number, finger general pattern) on the expected evidential value of the test configurations were investigated.  (Publisher abstract modified)
      
  
          Additional Details
Grant Number(s)
        2010-DN-BX-K267


  
  
        
  Agencies
        NIJ-Sponsored


  
  
        
  Publication Type
        Statistics
                                Research (Applied/Empirical)
                                Report (Grant Sponsored)


  
  
        
  Award
        Improving the Understanding and the Reliability of the Concept of "Sufficiency" in Friction ridge Examination
    
  
  
Date Published: March 1, 2015
    
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      PatentsRelated Topics
        
                Criminology
        Fingerprint analysis
        Fingerprints
        Justice system
        Mathematical Modeling



  
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