Techniques that acquire donor profiling information from fingermarks - A review

Fingermarks are among the most important types of evidence that can be encountered at the scene of a crime since the unique ridge pattern of a fingerprint can be used for individualization. But fingermarks contain more than the characteristic pattern of ridges and furrows, they are composed of a wide variety of different components that originate from endogenous and exogenous sources. The chemical composition can be used to obtain additional information from the donor of the fingermark, which in turn can be used to create a donor profile. Donor profiling can serve at least two purposes i) to enhance the evidential value of fingermarks and ii) to provide valuable tactical information during the crime scene investigation. Retrieving this additional information is not limited to fingermarks that have been used for individualization, but can also be applied on partial and/or distorted fingermarks. In this review we have summarized the types of information that can be obtained from fingermarks. Additionally, an overview is given of the techniques that are available addressing their unique characteristics and limitations. We expect that in the nearby future, donor profiling from contact traces, including fingermarks will be possible.