Northern Kentucky University
It's All About the Prints
Institution
Northern Kentucky University
Faculty Advisor/ Mentor
Jill Shelley
Abstract
Fingerprinting is one of the most common methods used in identifying criminal suspects. Next to DNA, fingerprints are the most important piece of evidence used to aid in convictions. In today’s court more juries are persuaded by concrete evidence than any other forms. Cyanoacrylate fuming (super glue fuming) is the chemical process of visualizing latent fingerprints that might be on non-porous surfaces. The super glue fumes will bond with the organic components and moisture of the fingerprint. One major problem with super glue fuming is that the print may not be fumed long enough, so that the print does not show all of the ridge details. Or the print may be fumed too long and become oversaturated with superglue so there is no ridge detail. The purpose was to observe three main factors that can be controlled: amount of time for fuming, humidity inside the fuming tank and concentration of the cyanoacrylate that would give the best overall quality print. It is believed that the amount of time the item is fumed depends on the size of the fuming tank and the object that is being fumed. The humidity inside the tank also influenced the amount of time.
It's All About the Prints
Fingerprinting is one of the most common methods used in identifying criminal suspects. Next to DNA, fingerprints are the most important piece of evidence used to aid in convictions. In today’s court more juries are persuaded by concrete evidence than any other forms. Cyanoacrylate fuming (super glue fuming) is the chemical process of visualizing latent fingerprints that might be on non-porous surfaces. The super glue fumes will bond with the organic components and moisture of the fingerprint. One major problem with super glue fuming is that the print may not be fumed long enough, so that the print does not show all of the ridge details. Or the print may be fumed too long and become oversaturated with superglue so there is no ridge detail. The purpose was to observe three main factors that can be controlled: amount of time for fuming, humidity inside the fuming tank and concentration of the cyanoacrylate that would give the best overall quality print. It is believed that the amount of time the item is fumed depends on the size of the fuming tank and the object that is being fumed. The humidity inside the tank also influenced the amount of time.