The Science of Fingerprints: Classification and Uses
A Forensic Identification Manual on Henry Classification, Ridge Patterns, and Latent PrintsBy United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation
Length5h 12m
About this audiobook
The Science of Fingerprints: Classification and Uses is a systematic manual of forensic identification, explaining how friction-ridge patterns are recorded, classified, preserved, searched, and interpreted. Its methodical treatment encompasses fingerprint anatomy, pattern types, filing systems, latent impressions, investigative comparison, and the evidentiary significance of identification. Written in a precise, instructional style rather than a narrative one, the book belongs to the tradition of twentieth-century scientific and administrative manuals that translated specialized laboratory knowledge into standardized professional practice. Its importance lies equally in its technical content and in its faith in reproducible procedures, careful observation, and documented evidence. The credited author, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, reflects the institutional setting in which modern American criminal identification was organized. The Bureau's responsibility for maintaining national investigative resources and fingerprint records created a practical need for common terminology, reliable classification, and uniform operating standards among law-enforcement agencies. This volume therefore emerges not as an individual theorist's argument, but as the product of an institution seeking to consolidate expertise and make forensic knowledge operational across jurisdictions. Readers interested in forensic science, criminology, policing, legal history, or the development of bureaucratic knowledge will find this book especially valuable. It offers both a foundational account of fingerprint practice and a revealing document of the period's confidence in scientific classification. Though technical in presentation, it rewards close reading as a history of evidence: a concise guide to how bodily traces were transformed into investigative information and courtroom claims.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.6 (152)
Includes Amazon, Goodreads
GenreScience and Nature
Length5 hrs 12 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 21, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The History of Ink, Including Its Etymology, Chemistry, and Bibliography (Annotated)
26CHAPTER V
2John Edgar Hoover, Director
27Classification of scarred patterns
3INTRODUCTION
28Classification of amputations and fingers missing at birth
4CHAPTER I
29Classification of bandaged or imprinted fingers
5The Identification Division of the FBI
30CHAPTER VI
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6CHAPTER II
31Filing Sequence
7Types of patterns
32CHAPTER VII
8Interpretation
33Searching
9The loop
34Referencing
10Essentials of a loop
35CHAPTER VIII
11Ridge counting
36How To Take Inked Fingerprints
12Radial and ulnar loops
37CHAPTER IX
13The plain arch
38Mechanical operation
14The tented arch
39Illegible inked prints
15The whorl
40Temporary disabilities
16The plain whorl
41Permanent disabilities
17Central pocket loop
42Deformities
18Double loop
43General
19Accidental
44CHAPTER X
20Whorl tracing
45Advanced decomposition
21CHAPTER III
46Desiccation and charring
22Questionable Patterns
47Water-soaked fingers
23CHAPTER IV
48Drying the fingers
24The classification formula
49X-ray photography
25Extensions
50General photography
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