Deck 2: History

Question 1

Why is it important to know the history of your science?

Answer 1

a. For courtroom testimony
b. To understand the past, present and future of the science
c. For certification exams

Question 2

What is a certification exam?

Answer 2

a. A voluntary exam that tests your general knowledge, professional capabilities and competency
b. Result is a "certification" in a field of study (professional title)

Question 3

Fingerprints found on ancient pottery indicate that ancient peoples were knowledgeable about the uniqueness and permanence of friction ridge skin.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Where were fingerprints first used as identifying marks as early as 246 B.C.E.?

Question 5

Nehemiah Grew, the "Father of Plant Physiology", performed the first scientific analysis of friction ridges using what newly invented scientific tool?

Question 6

Grew published a treatise on which features of friction ridge skin?

Question 7

Where did the science of fingerprint analysis begin to take shape in the mid-eighteen hundreds?

Question 8

Sir William Herschel became the first European to acknowledge the individualizing power of fingerprints.

Question 9

What were Dr. Henry Faulds' contributions to the history of fingerprint analysis?

Question 10

Who wrote the first book on fingerprints (entitled Finger Prints) in 1892?

Question 11

What premises of fingerprint analysis did Sir Francis Galton describe?

Question 12

What are Galton details?

Question 13

What is anthropometry?

Question 14

Define "classification" as it pertains to criminal identification.

Question 15

Describe Alphonse Bertillon's contributions to criminal identification and classification.

Question 16

What were the justifications for using Bertillonage as a method of identification?

Question 17

What were the disadvantages of Bertillonage?

Question 18

Why did fingerprints replace Bertillonage as the preferred method of criminal identification and classification?

Question 19

Who is responsible for developing the first classification system still in use today in mostly Spanish-speaking countries, and where was that classification system developed?

Question 20

Describe the classification system developed by Sir Edward Henry and his colleagues that became known as Henry Classification.

Question 21

Fingerprinting was introduced to North America in 1903 when the New York State Prison System began routinely fingerprinting inmates.

Question 22

What is the current name of the oldest active international forensic association, formed in Oakland, California in 1915?

Question 23

What technological invention allowed vast numbers of fingerprint cards to be stored and searched efficiently?

Question 24

What is AFIS?

Question 25

What significant paradigm shifts in the United States have changed the course of the fingerprint analysis field?

Question 26

What recommendations did the NAS report make for strengthening the science of fingerprint analysis?