| Author | Message | ||
     garza (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted From: cpe-24-175-216-208.rgv.res.rr.com |
How can DNA be used to "fingerprint" a suspect in a crime? | ||
| Ernie Hamm |
Dawn, What kind of 'fingerprint loss' are you talking about? There are latent fingerprints found (taken) at crime scenes and there are known fingerprints recorded (taken) for record purposes. If the latent fingerprint is no longer available in any form, that's it. It is gone and can not be used in a trial. If you are referring to the known fingerprint, it can be recorded again and used because it will not change in 16 years. | ||
| dawn coleman |
what happens if police loss fingerprint that were taken 16 years ago and now want to go to trail | ||
| Webservant |
Absolutely correct. Neither DNA nor friction ridge (finger, palm, toe and foot) identification are more unique than many other aspects of the human body. A person can be positively identified from the striations on the underside of fingernails, from a freckle pattern, from the unique configuration of pores on their nose, and much more. The reason that fingerprint identification is so much more successful than DNA (at solving who-done-it cases) is due to the maturity of the science coupled with the presence of worldwide collections of fingerprint files (many consolidated or linked electronically to some extent). Within an hour after collection, fingerprint cards are often searched against over 48 million persons in the FBI's database. DNA often is not sequenced for weeks or months after collection, is typically over 100 times more expensive than fingerprint technology, and has only a fraction of the number of persons in databases compared with fingerprints. DNA is far behind fingerprint sampling volume and falling farther behind everyday (more persons are fingerprinted daily than are processed for DNA). DNA samples in some huge repositories, like DoD's millions of soldiers' DNA samples, are never sequenced and are stored for possible future sequencing if a person is killed or becomes missing in action, etc. Fingerprints in DoD repositories are processed and entered into computers. Nearly all of DoD casualty identification is accomplished using fingerprints. | ||
| Michele |
Sure, mostly financial and practical advantages. Making a fingerprint identification is faster and cheaper (with respect to the tools needed) than DNA identifications. But this doesn’t mean that fingerprint identifications are better and more useful than DNA identifications. Sometimes a fingerprint is left on an item and DNA is not. Other times DNA is left on an item and a fingerprint is not. They are both tools and can be used under different circumstances. Both systems have advantages and disadvantages. | ||
| Cath Smith |
Do fingerprints have advantages over the use of DNA? |
