Correlation of Fingerprint and Footprint in Individual Identification

Abstract

Aim: Fingerprints are unique patterns, made by friction ridges (raised) and furrows (recessed), which appear on the pads of the fingers and thumbs, prints from palms, toes and feet are also unique; started in 1892 by Sir Francis Galton. Dermatoglyphics is the study of ridge patterns of the skin which naturally occur on certain body parts, like palms, fingers, soles, and toes. Fingerprints are permanent and are not the same even in monozygotic twins and are used in identification in case of mass disaster. The present study aims to correlation fingerprints and footprints of the same individual for forensic identification.

Materials and methods: Thumb fingerprint and thumb toe print of both right and left hand and leg were collected from the participants; n=50. Participants were asked to wash their hands and legs and were asked to roll their fingers and toe then examined for uniformity of ink spread. The resultant ridge patterns were analyzed by manual method and studied for patterns of plain whorls, plain arches and loops and statistically analyzed using SPSS software.

Results: Lesser variation of prints were observed in fingers than that of foot, more frequent fingerprints were 51.7% of loop patterns followed by 48.3% of plain whorls. Toe print most common patterns of loop were observed with 48.2% in left and 49.9% in right toe. Same distribution pattern for both fingers and toe showed 95% correlation while 5% discrepancy was observed.

Conclusion: Various patterns in finger and footprints were observed, more common patterns reported were loop pattern followed by whorls in fingerprint; but in toeprint reported loops more common followed by arches and least reported were whorls. This pattern correlation of fingerprints and footprints might be useful for individual identification