Fingerprints were first used in the United States by the New York prison system in 1903. Today, the FBI has a collection of prints that numbers in the millions.

Police officers can use fingerprints to identify defendants and crime victims if a print matches one already on file. People's fingerprint

Fingerprints are one of the best forms of physical evidence left at a crime scene. A fingerprint can conclusively identify both offenders and victims. State- wide and soon nation wide identification databases continue to make it possible to identify a fingerprint in nearly no time at all. Modern law enforcement continues to experiment and apply the latest technology to solve crime in the important area of fingerprinting. Because of the ability of the fingerprinting field it is now virtually impossible for a crime to go unsolved where the fingerprint of the suspect is present. Because of the great technological advancements in the area of fingerprint technology, crimes have been solved and will continue to be solved in the future.

s can be on file for a variety of reasons. For example, people may be fingerprinted when they are arrested, or when they join certain occupations. And it is increasingly popular for parents to ask local police departments or schools to fingerprint their young children, a grim reminder that children who are abducted or are the victims of other heinous crimes often cannot be identified otherwise . The millions of fingerprints obtained by the FBI are all scanned into a computer and then entered into a databank, known as the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or AFIS. It can then be accessed by law enforcement agencies around the country to attempt to identify prints found at the scene of a crime with those already in the databank. With all the talk of computers and scanners one may think that the idea of fingerprints is a relatively new concept. However, the use of fingerprints as evidence is much older than one might think.

Once a fingerprint is recovered, classified, and scanned, the fingerprint can then be compared to others to possibly identify a match with a print obtained previously. Fingerprints are classified in a three-way process: by the shapes and contours of individual patterns, by noting the finger positions of the pattern types, and by relative size, determined by counting the ridges in loops and by tracing the ridges in whorls. The information obtained in this way is incorporated in a concise formula, which is known as the individuals fingerprint classification. There are several variants of the Henry system, but that used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States recognizes eight different types of patterns: radial loop, ulnar loop, double loop, central pocket loop, plain arch, tented arch, plain whorl, and accidental. Whorls are usually circular or spiral in shape. Arches have a mound-like contour, while tented arches have a spike-like or steeple-like appearance in the center. Loops have concentric hairpin or staple-shaped ridges and are described as "radial" or "ulnar" to denote their slopes; ulnar loops slope toward the little finger side of the hand, radial loops toward the thumb. Loops constitute about 65 percent of the total fingerprint patterns; whorls make up about 30 percent, and arches and tented arches together account for the other 5 percent. The most common pattern is the ulnar loop .

Finding a print is just the beginning to the whole process of solving a crime. Up until the middle 1980's, without the name of the suspect or some other lead, it may be nearly impossible to identify the print. After that time the use of computers, scanners and the incredible amounts of ways to link computers around the c

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