Dutch scientists crack fingerprint dating!

This news seems to be completely true - it's broken in scientific journals first.

If fingerprints can now be dated, it could be hugely important. Especially, is my first thought, in cases where a hoimicide victim is known to have had previous contact with a suspect. If police could tell when any fingerprints were left at a crime scene......

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/stor...ch-scientists-crack-fingerprint-dating-riddle

Another article here.

http://www.nltimes.nl/2014/06/04/dutch-crime-lab-develops-fingerprint-aging-process/

Bit of info about Dr Marcel De Puit, who made the announcement.

http://www.fingerprintsociety.com/fpsoc2014conf/depuit.html

zwiebel said:

This news seems to be completely true - it's broken in scientific journals first.

If fingerprints can now be dated, it could be hugely important. Especially, is my first thought, in cases where a hoimicide victim is known to have had previous contact with a suspect. If police could tell when any fingerprints were left at a crime scene......

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/stor...ch-scientists-crack-fingerprint-dating-riddle

Click to expand...

Taking into account the temperature of the original prints' surroundings, which affects the speed of deterioration, forensic experts can now date fingerprints to within "one or two days," up to 15 days.

The new technique needs to be extensively tested on real crimes scenes, leading to the creation of a database, before it can be used in prosecutions, hopefully "within a year," De Puit said.

As the database expands, so should the technique's reliability, allowing police to date fingerprints from several years before.

Click to expand...

I'm a bit puzzled by this within "one or two days," up to 15 days.
Aha! answer for my own question comes from the nl.times article:

This procedure has to happen within 15 days of the print being placed, otherwise the results will be untrustworthy.

Click to expand...

I can also see new problems arising for innocent bystanders who happend to be around.

I would have thought it could be helpful for innocent bystanders? By helping to exclude people who left prints long before the time of a crime?

<When I saw this title, I thought it meant that there was a way to match people up on dates based on their fingerprints, lol.>

zwiebel said:

I would have thought it could be helpful for innocent bystanders? By helping to exclude people who left prints long before the time of a crime?

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It can be helpful for people who left prints long before the crime happened. But the nearer you get to the time frame, the trickier it becomes.
Well, let's just wait and see how it all works out.

BTW the composition of fingerprints look pretty healthy, with possible exception of the cholesterol:

A fingerprint is a mix of sweat and skin oil. These prints are full of proteins, amino acids, cholesterol and squalene

Click to expand...

http://www.nltimes.nl/2014/06/04/dutch-crime-lab-develops-fingerprint-aging-process/

Squalene has been called the miraculous essential omega 2 oil and according to Wikipedia Squalene has been proposed to be an important part of the Mediterranean diet as it may be a chemopreventive substance that protects people from cancer.
All of this can be found at the tip of your fingers!
Don't wipe those prints, lick 'em!

:great: :great: :great:

I read in another article that the further research in actual scenes of crime will need to meet the FBI's own forensic standards, in order for the technique to be used in the US.

I believe this institute has a very high reputation though, that US authorities acknowledge, so I don't think that will be an obstacle.

I haven't read any papers on this, even if they are available to the public, but I am thinking of one particular type of crime where it really could make a difference; domestic violence.

There is a particularly high risk of that crime (usually male against female) when a couple are in the process of divorce or separation. And it often occurs when the woman is living alone in a home she previously shared with the man. Assaults can often come down to her word against his, and if the suspect denies returning to the home, it's difficult for prosecutors to prove - the house will be full of his fingerprints from when he lived there before.

It could be a fantastic help there, if they could differentiate between a recent print and an old one. I'm wishing that technique had been available for the Drew Peterson trial.

Another use I thought of was where victim and suspect shared a car - knowing when the suspect was last in the car could really help there too. And it seems that crimes where victim and suspect are known to each other are most often the impulsive ones, where gloves aren't worn.

I'm really so excited about this. I'd send them a jar of Speculoos as thanks, except I'm sure they have plenty of their own!

margarita25 said:

<When I saw this title, I thought it meant that there was a way to match people up on dates based on their fingerprints, lol.>

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Well, from following some of the links from the article, I found a NY Artist who -wait for it - makes a facial reconstruction from DNA she obtains from picking chewing gum up from the sidewalk!

I believe there has been a little difficulty checking if her recons are accurate, Lol!