FBI Guide to Fingerprint Identification

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This is the official FBI Guide to the Science of Fingerprints… material the Bureau has provided to law enforcement agencies worldwide, and after several decades of trying criminal cases l strongly suggest that no defense attorney should be without this book in his or her library for reference before entering any trial in which fingerprint evidence might be submitted.

Too often I’ve seen police testify that there was a ‘match’ between the defendant’s
prints and those found at the scene of a crime, and if a hearsay objection is overruled,
without the information contained in this book, the average defense attorney is at a
disadvantage to cross-examine the witness as to the details of how this conclusion was reached, - and also not competent to launch a credible protest to a fingerprint expert’s qualification to testify, thereby eliminating some lab employee one step above janitor from testifying as to his opinion about alleged match being found.

It’s also nice to have enough knowledge to ask some procedural questions of a lab
tech that ‘lifted’ the subject prints, and the method used for comparison, because in
real life, those fantastic computer screens seen in the CSI television shows comparing prints and the fact that a ‘match’ exists, never seem to make it into the courtroom.

If you think you already know enough about dermatoglyphics to cross-examine some
qualified fingerprint expert, then give yourself this vocabulary test on 22 terms that a fingerprint witness might use, and see if you know what each one of them means in relationship to the science of fingerprints… and if you fail the test, then start reading this book before your next trial.. and if you can’t, don’t worry... this book contains more than 432 illustrations, giving you everything you need to know about fingerprints.
Accidental Whorl
Bifurcation
Central Pocket Loop
Core
Delta
Diversion
Double Loop
Ending Ridge
Extensions
Fingerprint chart for court testimony
Latent Impressions
Looping Ridge
Plain Arch
Plain Whorl
Powdering
Radial Loop
Ridge Counting
Scarred Patterns
Tented Arch

Note that this is a full 8½" x 11" 242-page workbook-sized publication that also contains 432 helpful illustrations + paginated table of contents, for your ease in finding sections.

Retired criminal defense trial attorney Gene Grossman provided a ForeWord for this book, and also did the complete job of formatting it for print.

Mr. Grossman is the author of the popular crime series of book, the Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries, all available in print and deBook formats at Amazon.