Migration of latent fingermarks on non-porous surfaces: Observation technique and nanoscale variations

Freshly deposited latent fingermarks consist of multiple components from eccrine and sebaceous secretions such as water, fatty acids, sterol esters, wax esters, amino acids and inorganic compounds [1 –4]. Estimates of water concentration vary from less than 20% [1] to 99% [2,3]. The composition of deposited latent fingermarks may vary as a result of many factors such as: age [5–10], gender [4,6,11,12–14,15], race [16] and diet [11] of the donor as well as the deposition action, contact tim e, angle, pressure, and substrate nature which includes porosity, curvature, and texture [4,5].

Source: Forensic Science International - March 4, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: K.T. Popov, V.G. Sears, B.J. Jones Source Type: research