NCJ Number
136030
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 37 Issue: 2 Dated: (March 1992) Pages: 604-611
Date Published
1992
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Based on the phenomenon that static electricity attracts dust, a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) semirigid sheet coated with printing ink was used to visualize impressions of fingerprinting ink was used to visualize impressions of fingerprints on the skin of living and dead bodies.
Abstract
The method presented in this article uses a PET semirigid sheet which is rubbed to produce static electricity; this attracts the dust and oil in skin fingerprints onto the PET sheet, and then the fingerprint impression is visualized using sidelighting. The PET sheet used for visualization of fingerprints is smeared at one side with a coating of dark printing ink. This increases the friction factor, produces high shading ability and a uniform color, and provides a sharp contrast to the impressed fingerprints. For fingerprints that yield inadequate contrast, an argon-ion laser can be used to improve the contrast. Compared with visualization methods for perspiration fingerprints, this method recovers better images for a longer time after the fingerprint has been deposited on skin. The method has been tested on living and dead bodies, and the fingerprint impressions all show good visualization results. 1 table, 7 figures, and 5 references