Dactyloscopy is the study of fingerprint identification. Dactylograms are nothing but fingerprints. Fingerprints are friction ridge skin pattern. In forensic analysis the fingerprints are the impressions that are left on surfaces in the oil which is deposited by a person’s touch. The fundamental principles of fingerprints for every living person have a unique pattern of ridges on the tips of their fingers. This makes it possible to positively identify an individual victim or prove the presence of a suspect at a crime scene.
The categorization of fingerprints are of three types i.e., loops, archs and whorls. The fingerprint factoid in 60% of people has loops and 35% have whorls whereas 5% of people have archs. The reliability of fingerprinting is high because no two persons have the same patterns of ridges and depressions.
Fingerprints found at a crime scene fall into three main categories which are visible, impression and latent. Visible fingerprints are easily to spot which are left by dirt, grease, blood, etc and does not need processing. Impression fingerprints which are made indentation in soft material like butter, putty, tar, etc. A latent fingerprint requires processing to make visible and suitable for analysis.
The development and collection of fingerprints depends on situation. The types of developing fingerprinting are dusting whereas in chemical development uses silver nitrate, iodine fuming, ninhydrin, superglue fuming. The collections of fingerprints are tape lift and photograph.
The recent trends are virtual autopsy which is a cornerstone for forensic medicine. It is a non invasive technique. Virtopsy is a combination of forensic medicine, radiology, pathology, physics and pathology. This method is a time saving and determines the cause of death of bad putrefied dead bodies. The second new trend is forensic facial reconstruction which is an art and investigating tool. It is nothing but a process of recreating the face of unknown individual. It gives the chance to reform face the victim by two dimensional or three dimensional reconstructions. Reconstruction is not a complete image of the person but it is accurate representation which had a high success rate. The third trend is biometric technique. Fingerprint is the old biometric technique. Different types of biometric prints are retinal print which uses the eye for personal identification. The other type is Iris scan in which the colored part of the eye appears to be as fingerprint. Ear print in which the anatomy is unique to each individual and different and lip print. The study of lip print is called cheiloscopy. Dactyloscopy the future of forensic dentistry. The arrival of fingerprinting has revolutionalized the concept of identification.