Editing Fingerprint (section)

== History ==

=== Antiquity and the medieval period ===
Fingerprints have been found on ancient [[clay tablet]]s,<ref name="GigaMesh_2010"/> seals, and pottery.<ref name="Pottery_2002" /><ref name="Pottery_2019" /> They have also been found on the walls of Egyptian tombs and on Minoan, Greek, and Chinese<ref>{{Cite web |last=Laskow |first=Sarah |date=November 21, 2016 |title=Finger prints found on pottery |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/oldest-human-fingerprint-pottery-kuwait-2016-11?r=DE&IR=T |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628003751/https://www.businessinsider.com/oldest-human-fingerprint-pottery-kuwait-2016-11?r=DE&IR=T |archive-date=June 28, 2020 |access-date=June 25, 2020 |website=[[Business Insider]]}}</ref> pottery. In [[ancient China]] officials authenticated government documents with their fingerprints. In about 200 BC, fingerprints were used to sign written [[contracts]] in [[Babylon]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Security and Privacy in Cyber-Physical Systems: Foundations, Principles, and Applications |first1=Houbing |last1=Song|first2=Glenn A. |last2=Fink |first3=Sabina |last3=Jeschke|publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2017| isbn=978-1119226048|pages=189}}</ref> Fingerprints from 3D-scans of cuneiform tablets are extracted using the [[GigaMesh Software Framework]].<ref name="Tablets3D_2019" />

With the advent of silk and paper in China, parties to a legal contract impressed their handprints on the document. Sometime before 851 CE, an Arab merchant in China, Abu Zayd Hasan, witnessed Chinese merchants using fingerprints to authenticate loans.<ref>{{Citation 
 | first = Joseph Toussaint | last = Reinaud
 | title = Relation des voyages faits par les Arabes et les Persans dans l'Inde et a la Chine dans le IX Siecle
 | location = Paris | publisher = Imprimerie royale | year = 1845 | series = volume I | page = 42
}}</ref>

References from the age of the Babylonian king [[Hammurabi]] (reigned 1792–1750 BCE) indicate that law officials would take the fingerprints of people who had been arrested.<ref>Ashbaugh (1999), p. 15.</ref> During China's [[Qin dynasty]], records have shown that officials took hand prints and foot prints as well as fingerprints as evidence from a crime scene.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/health/2010-02/09/content_12956719_1.htm
 |script-title=zh:千余學者摸清我國民族膚紋 "家底" 南北是一家<!--Finger prints were used to investigate burglary in Qin dynasty-->
 |language    = zh
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100213185833/http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/health/2010-02/09/content_12956719_1.htm
 |archive-date = February 13, 2010
}}</ref> In 650, the Chinese historian Kia Kung-Yen remarked that fingerprints could be used as a means of authentication.<ref name="Ashbaugh Ridgeology">{{cite book |last1=Ashbaugh |first1=David R. |title=Quantitative-qualitative friction ridge analysis : an introduction to basic and advanced ridgeology |date=1999 |publisher=CRC Press |location=Boca Raton, Fla. |isbn=978-1420048810 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SdSOCgAAQBAJ |access-date=17 June 2021 |archive-date=February 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203180010/https://books.google.com/books?id=SdSOCgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> In his ''[[Jami al-Tawarikh]]'' (Universal History), the Iranian physician [[Rashid-al-Din Hamadani]] (1247–1318) refers to the Chinese practice of identifying people via their fingerprints, commenting: "Experience shows that no two individuals have fingers exactly alike."<ref>{{Cite book| first = Simon | last = Cole| title = Suspect Identities: A history of fingerprinting and criminal identification| url = https://archive.org/details/suspectidentitie00cole | url-access = limited | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | publisher = Harvard University Press | year = 2001 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/suspectidentitie00cole/page/n71 60]–61| isbn = 978-0674004559}}</ref>
Whether these examples indicate that ancient peoples realized that fingerprints could uniquely identify individuals has been debated, with some arguing these examples are no more meaningful than an illiterate's mark on a document or an accidental remnant akin to a potter's mark on their clay.<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Cummins | first = Harold | year = 1941 | title = Ancient finger prints in clay | journal = The Scientific Monthly | volume = 52 | issue = 5 | pages = 389–402|bibcode = 1941SciMo..52..389C }} Reprinted in ''Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology'', volume 34, 4, pp. 468–481, November–December 1941</ref>

=== Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries ===
From the late 16th century onwards, European academics attempted to include fingerprints in scientific studies. But plausible conclusions could be established only from the mid-17th century onwards. In 1686, the professor of anatomy at the [[University of Bologna]] [[Marcello Malpighi]] identified ridges, spirals and loops in fingerprints left on surfaces. In 1788, a German anatomist [[Johann Christoph Andreas Mayer]] was the first European to conclude that fingerprints were unique to each individual.<ref>{{Cite book
 | first = Johann Christoph Andreas | last = Mayer
 | title = Anatomische Kupfertafeln nebst dazu gehörigen Erklärungen |trans-title=Anatomical Illustrations (etchings) with Accompanying Explanations, volume 4
 | location = Berlin, Prussia | publisher = Georg Jacob Decker und Sohn|year = 1788 | page = 5}}</ref>

=== 19th century ===
[[File:Nine_fingerprint_patterns_Purkyne.png|thumb|right|Nine fingerprint patterns identified by [[Jan Evangelista Purkyně]] ]]
[[File:Fingerprints taken by William James Herschel 1859-1860.jpg|thumb|Fingerprints taken by [[Sir William Herschel, 2nd Baronet|William Herschel]] 1859/60]]
[[File:India 1952 2r stamped paper.jpg|thumb|Fingerprints used instead of signatures on an Indian legal document of 1952]]
In 1823, [[Jan Evangelista Purkyně]] identified nine fingerprint patterns. The nine patterns include the tented arch, the loop, and the whorl, which in modern-day forensics are considered ridge details.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Forensic Criminology|author=Andy Williams| publisher=Routledge|year=2014| isbn=978-1136233982|pages=155}}</ref> In 1840, following the murder of [[Lord William Russell]], a provincial doctor, Robert Blake Overton, wrote to [[Scotland Yard]] suggesting checking for fingerprints.<ref name="Ind">{{cite news | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/vital-clue-ignored-for-50-years-8395985.html | title=Vital clue ignored for 50 years | newspaper=Independent | access-date=December 28, 2015 | location=London | author=Dalya Alberge | date=9 December 2012 | archive-date=January 7, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107182948/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/vital-clue-ignored-for-50-years-8395985.html | url-status=live }}</ref> In 1853, the German anatomist [[Georg Meissner|Georg von Meissner]] (1829–1905) studied friction ridges,<ref>{{Cite book | author = Georg von Meissner | title = Beiträge zur Anatomie und Physiologie der Haut | trans-title = Contributions to the Anatomy and Physiology of the Skin | location = Leipzig, Saxony | publisher = Leopold Voss | year = 1853 }}</ref> and in 1858, [[Sir William Herschel, 2nd Baronet|Sir William James Herschel]] initiated fingerprinting in India. In 1877, he first instituted the use of fingerprints on contracts and deeds to prevent the [[Anticipatory repudiation|repudiation]] of signatures in [[Chinsurah|Hooghly]] near [[Kolkata]]<ref name="Herschel1916">{{Cite book| author = William J Herschel|title = The Origin of Finger-Printing |publisher = Oxford University Press|year = 1916|isbn = 978-1104662257}}</ref> and he registered government pensioners' fingerprints to prevent the collection of money by relatives after a pensioner's death.<ref>{{Cite journal | author = William James Herschel | title = Skin furrows of the hand | journal = Nature | volume = 23 | issue = 578 | page = 76 | date = 25 November 1880 | doi = 10.1038/023076b0 | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1429253 | bibcode = 1880Natur..23...76H | s2cid = 4068612 | access-date = August 28, 2019 | archive-date = March 15, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200315130215/https://zenodo.org/record/1429253 | url-status = live }}</ref>

In 1880, [[Henry Faulds]], a Scottish surgeon in a Tokyo hospital, published his first paper on the usefulness of fingerprints for identification and proposed a method to record them with printing ink.<ref name=faulds1>{{Cite journal | url = http://www.galton.org/fingerprints/faulds-1880-nature-furrows.pdf | author = Henry Faulds | title = On the skin-furrows of the hand | journal = Nature | volume = 22 | issue = 574 | page = 605 | date = 28 October 1880 | doi = 10.1038/022605a0 | bibcode = 1880Natur..22..605F | s2cid = 4117214 | access-date = September 8, 2008 | archive-date = September 12, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080912031154/http://www.galton.org/fingerprints/faulds-1880-nature-furrows.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref> [[Henry Faulds]] also suggested, based on his studies, that fingerprints are unique to a human.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Biometrics: I - Z Volume 2|author=Stan Z. Li|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |year=2009|isbn=978-0387730028|pages=510}}</ref> Returning to Great Britain in 1886, he offered the concept to the [[Metropolitan Police]] in London but it was dismissed at that time.<ref name=reid1>{{Cite journal| author = Donald L. Reid| year = 2003| title = Dr. Henry Faulds – Beith Commemorative Society| journal = Journal of Forensic Identification | volume = 53 | issue = 2}}</ref> Up until the early 1890s, police forces in the [[United States]] and on the [[European continent]] could not reliably identify criminals to track their [[criminal record]].<ref name="auto1">{{Cite book|title=The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia|author=Wilbur R. Miller|publisher=Sage Publications|year=2012|isbn=978-1483305936}}</ref> [[Francis Galton]] published a detailed statistical model of fingerprint analysis and identification in his 1892 book ''Finger Prints''. He had calculated that the chance of a "false positive" (two different individuals having the same fingerprints) was about 1 in 64&nbsp;billion.<ref name=galtonfps>{{cite web|url = http://www.clpex.com/Information/Pioneers/galton-1892-fingerprints-lowres.pdf|last = Galton|first = Francis|year = 1892|title = Finger Prints|location = London|publisher = MacMillan and Co|access-date = September 25, 2006|archive-date = October 12, 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061012152917/http://www.clpex.com/Information/Pioneers/galton-1892-fingerprints-lowres.pdf|url-status = dead}}</ref> In 1892, [[Juan Vucetich]], an Argentine chief police officer, created the first method of recording the fingerprints of individuals on file. In that same year, [[Francisca Rojas]] was found in a house with neck injuries, while her two sons were found dead with their throats cut. Rojas accused a neighbour, but despite brutal interrogation, this neighbour would not confess to the crimes. Inspector Álvarez, a colleague of Vucetich, went to the scene and found a bloody thumb mark on a door. When it was compared with Rojas' prints, it was found to be identical with her right thumb. She then confessed to the murder of her sons.<ref name="barnes2011fingerprint">{{cite book |last1=New Scotland Yard |title=Metropolitan Police (New Scotland Yard) training manuals |date=1990 |publisher=Metropolitan Police Service, SO3 Scenes of Crime Branch, Training Section |location=London |pages=8–9 |chapter=Fingerprint history: A synopsis of the development of fingerprint identification with particular reference to New Scotland Yard}}, {{cite book |last1=Beavan |first1=Colin |title=Fingerprints: The origins of crime detection and the murder case that launched forensic science |date=2001 |publisher=Hyperion |location=New York |isbn=978-0786866076 |pages=114–116 |edition=1st}} cited in {{cite book |last1=Barnes |first1=Jeffery G. |editor1-last=McRoberts |editor1-first=Alan |title=The Fingerprint Sourcebook |date=2011 |publisher=U.S. Department of Justice |location=Washington, DC |pages=13–14 |url=https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/225320.pdf |access-date=17 June 2021 |chapter=Chapter 1: History |archive-date=April 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210407140556/https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/225320.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> This was the first known murder case to be solved using fingerprint analysis.<ref name="ruggiero2001fingerprinting">{{cite book |last1=Ruggiero |first1=Kristin |editor1-last=Caplan |editor1-first=Jane |editor2-last=Torpey |editor2-first=John |title=Documenting individual identity: The development of state practices in the modern world |date=2001 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0691186856 |page=191 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv301fxj.14 |access-date=17 June 2021 |chapter=Fingerprinting and the Argentine Plan for Universal Identification in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries |jstor=j.ctv301fxj.14 |archive-date=February 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203181009/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv301fxj?turn_away=true |url-status=live }}</ref>

In [[Kolkata]], a fingerprint Bureau was established in 1897, after the Council of the Governor General approved a committee report that fingerprints should be used for the classification of criminal records. The bureau employees [[Azizul Haque (police officer)|Azizul Haque]] and [[Hem Chandra Bose]] have been credited with the primary development of a fingerprint classification system eventually named after their supervisor, [[Edward Henry|Sir Edward Richard Henry]].<ref>{{Cite journal| last1 = Tewari | first1 = RK| last2 = Ravikumar | first2 = KV| title = History and development of forensic science in India| journal = J Postgrad Med | volume = 46| year = 2000 | issue = 46 | pages = 303–08| pmid = 11435664}}</ref>

=== 20th century ===
The French scientist Paul-Jean Coulier developed a method to transfer latent fingerprints on surfaces to paper using [[iodine]] fuming. It allowed the London [[Scotland Yard]] to start fingerprinting individuals and identify criminals using fingerprints in 1901. Soon after, American police departments adopted the same method and fingerprint identification became a standard practice in the United States.<ref name="auto1"/> The Scheffer case of 1902 is the first case of the identification, arrest, and conviction of a murderer based upon fingerprint evidence. [[Alphonse Bertillon]] identified the thief and murderer Scheffer, who had previously been arrested and his fingerprints filed some months before, from the fingerprints found on a fractured glass showcase, after a theft in a dentist's apartment where the dentist's employee was found dead. It was able to be proved in court that the fingerprints had been made after the showcase was broken.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actualites/celebrations2002/empreintes.htm |first = Jean-Marc |last = Berlière |publisher = Célébrations Nationales |title = Arrestation du premier assassin confondu par ses empreintes digitales |date = 16 October 1902 |access-date = October 26, 2009 |archive-date = March 2, 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100302164657/http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actualites/celebrations2002/empreintes.htm |url-status = live }}</ref>

The identification of individuals through fingerprints for [[law enforcement]] has been considered essential in the [[United States]] since the beginning of the 20th century. [[Body identification]] using fingerprints has also been valuable in the aftermath of [[natural disaster]]s and [[anthropogenic hazard]]s.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Forensic Laboratory Handbook Procedures and Practice|first1=Ashraf |last1=Mozayani |first2=Carla |last2=Noziglia|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|year=2010|isbn=978-1607618720|pages=146}}</ref> In the United States, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] manages a fingerprint identification system and database called the [[Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System]] (IAFIS), which currently holds the fingerprints and criminal records of over 51&nbsp;million criminal record subjects and over 1.5&nbsp;million civil (non-criminal) fingerprint records. [[U.S. Visit|OBIM]], formerly U.S. VISIT, holds the largest repository of biometric identifiers in the U.S. government at over 260&nbsp;million individual identities.<ref>{{cite web |title=Biometrics |url=https://www.dhs.gov/biometrics |website=Department of Homeland Security |access-date=17 June 2021 |language=en |date=2016-10-24 |archive-date=June 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617095144/https://www.dhs.gov/biometrics |url-status=live }}</ref> When it was deployed in 2004, this repository, known as the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT), stored biometric data in the form of two-finger records. Between 2005 and 2009, the [[United States Department of Homeland Security|DHS]] transitioned to a ten-print record standard in order to establish interoperability with IAFIS.<ref name="meunier2013biometrics">{{cite book |last1=Meunier |first1=Pierre |last2=Xiao |first2=Qinghan |last3=Vo |first3=Tien |title=Biometrics for National Security: The Case for a Whole of Government Approach |date=June 2013 |publisher=Defence Research and Development Canada |page=19 |url=https://cradpdf.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/PDFS/unc124/p537494_A1b.pdf |access-date=17 June 2021 |archive-date=October 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018073912/https://cradpdf.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/PDFS/unc124/p537494_A1b.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Fingerprinting 1928.jpg|thumb|Female clerical employees of the [[Los Angeles Police Department]] being fingerprinted and photographed in 1928]]
In 1910, [[Edmond Locard]] established the first [[Forensic science|forensic lab]] in France.<ref name="auto1"/> Criminals may wear [[gloves]] to avoid leaving fingerprints. However, the gloves themselves can leave prints that are as unique as human fingerprints. After collecting [[glove prints]], law enforcement can match them to gloves that they have collected as evidence or to prints collected at other crime scenes.<ref>{{cite news |last=Sawer |first=Patrick |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/3740688/Police-use-glove-prints-to-catch-criminals.html |title=Police use glove prints to catch criminals |publisher=The Telegraph |date=December 13, 2008 |access-date=September 14, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113153145/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/3740688/Police-use-glove-prints-to-catch-criminals.html |archive-date=January 13, 2012 }}</ref> In many [[jurisdictions]] the act of wearing gloves itself while committing a crime can be prosecuted as an [[inchoate offense]].<ref name=McCord>James W.H. McCord and Sandra L. McCord, ''Criminal Law and Procedure for the paralegal: a systems approach'', ''supra'', p. 127.</ref>