How are fingerprints compared and identification made?
The stopping, starting and branching into multiple ridges occur randomly. These form the individual ridge characteristics that examiners look for. An examiner will do a side-by-side comparison of the unknown, or developed latent print against the known print. This is usually done by using a five-power magnifier. The examiner looks for the same type of individual ridge characteristic, in the same location, in both the unknown and known prints. These individual ridge characteristics must be in the same unit relationship to each other, for instance if there are two ridges between two ridge characteristics in the unknown print, there must be two ridges between the same two ridge characteristics in the known print. If there is a sufficient quantity of those individual characteristics found with no unexplainable differences, then the examiner can state that the same person made the developed latent print and the known print. This is to the exclusion of all other persons.
