Fingerprinting cadavers: forensic tool for combating crime

URL: https://dspace.academy.police.md/fingerprinting-cadavers-forensic-tool-for-combating-crime/

Data: 2024

Fingerprinting is considered one of the best methods for identifying unidentified corpses, which is why it’s important for fingerprinting activities to be carried out as effectively as possible, accordingly to the condition in which they are found. The technique for obtaining fingerprints from cadavers differs from the process for living individuals, primarily due to changes caused by cadaveric rigidity, dehydration, hydration, putrefaction, and mummification or charring. Fingerprinting unidentified corpses can be a highly important forensic tool in combating crime, both for obtaining the identities of the deceased and for comparing fingerprint impressions with other fingerprint evidence collected from crime scenes in cases of other offenses, thus resolving cases with unknown perpetrators. The AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) is used internationally and is characterized as a fundamental component of national and European judicial systems in the fight against crime, used for subsequent comparison of fingerprint impressions with existing records in police databases. The ongoing fight of police units worldwide against all forms of crime is the primary objective of international police cooperation in its various forms.