3.2 Lifting and Examination of Fingerprints

The scene's prints: the patent (the visible — the inked, the bloody), the latent (the invisible — the skin's oils-and-sweat), the plastic (the 3D — the wax, the putty). The visualisation's methods: the powder dusting (the black-and-magnetic), the chemical developers (the ninhydrin for the porous — the paper; the cyanoacrylate fuming — the superglue's polymerisation), the light- based (the UV, the laser, the ALS). The lifting: the tape's-and-gel lifters' taking; the photography's record. The examination: the analysis-comparison-evaluation-and-verification (the ACE-V discipline); the examiner's conclusion (the identification, the exclusion, the inconclusive); the standards' debates (the no-error myths, the examiner's certification — the science's honesty).