Master class: Origins of Masked, Changed, and False Minutiae in Friction Ridge Impressions

6th EU IAI Educational Conference

19th – 21st June 2023

The EU IAI is delighted to offer this master class on Monday June 19th at the Judicial Police of Portugal HQ, Lisbon, Portugal

Master Class: "Origins of Masked, Changed, and False Minutiae in Friction Ridge Impressions"

Each time the ridged skin of the hands or feet contacts a surface, a unique impression of the skin's features is recorded. This means each impression truly only "matches" itself. Two impressions from the same region of ridge skin will inevitably display differences due to the recordings occurring at different moments in time and under different conditions. When conditions are ideal, the feature sets recorded in two impressions of the same region of skin bear remarkable similarities and no "significant" differences. What counts as an insignificant difference? If the examiner notices that the latent print appears to have been made by a finger that was sliding upward under high deposition pressure, the examiner can anticipate that the ridge widths and ridge spacings will be variable through the latent print and these widths and spacings will be recorded differently in the exemplar print. These differences are expected and insignificant. But what if an entire ridge or minutia is missing? What if there is an extra ridge or minutia in one of the impressions? Depending on the totality of the feature sets in the latent and exemplar prints, these differences can be quite significant. This workshop will lead attendees through some of the causes of missing and extra minutiae with ground truth examples of how different distortion issues can create these more troubling differences.

This class is limited to 18 participants.

Instructor:

Alice White, Evolve Forensics

Organiser note: This is an in-person only class. No remote attendance option will be made available. If you are attending EU IAI, this master class will cost 45 euros. To only attend the masterclasses, a registration fee of 100 euro is required.