U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

TALKING ABOUT TENTED ARCHES

NCJ Number
147851
Journal
Journal of Forensic Identification Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Dated: (March/April 1994) Pages: 193-197
Author(s)
J Peck
Date Published
1994
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The tented arch pattern poses difficulties in fingerprint classification; only 1 percent of the population has this pattern.
Abstract
One difficulty encountered when dealing with the tented arch pattern is that there is no single definition of just what one looks like. Another problem concerns the pattern's extent of upthrust; an upthrusting ridge does not have to rise to any particular height in order to form a tented arch pattern. Any fingerprint pattern that has at least two of the three basic requirements of a good loop pattern (sufficient recurve, delta, and ridge count across a looping ridge) is classified as a tented arch. When two independent ridges come together and form an angle, the resulting pattern may be called a tented arch. The arbitrary tented arch pattern is characterized by the presence of two equally good loops but only one delta formation.