Fingerprinting Forensics Fingerprints are one of the most important things that link a suspect with a crime scene. Colin Beavan says, “Every human being carries with him his cradle to his grave certain physical marks which do not change their character, and by which he can always be identified - and that without shade of doubt or question. These marks are his signature, his physiological autograph, so to speak, and his autograph can not be counterfeited, nor can he disguise it or hide it away, nor can it become illegible by the wear and mutations of time. This signature is not his face- age can change that beyond recognition; it is not his hair, for that can fall out; it is not his height, for duplicates of that exist; it is not his form, for duplicates of that exist also, whereas this signature is this man’s very own- there is no duplicate of it among the swarming populations of the globe. This autograph consists of the delicate lines or corrugations with which Nature marks the insides of the hands and the soles of the feet” (Beavan 1). “A fingerprint expert can tell apart the marks of two digits more easily than he can differentiate two people’s faces “(Beavan 11). Fingerprints play a crucial role in criminal detection because they are unique, have a long history, and have many uses. To begin, Fingerprints are unique when it comes to crime detection. No two people have been found to have the same fingerprints—they are totally unique. There’s a one in a 64 billion chance that your fingerprint will match up exactly with someone else’s. Fingerprints are even more unique than DNA, the genetic material in each of our cells. Although identical twins can share the same DNA, or at least most of it they can’t have the same fingerprints. Fingerprinting is one form of biometrics, a science that uses people’s physical