Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification

by Simon A. Cole

Book Overview

"No two fingerprints are alike," or so it goes. For nearly a hundred years fingerprints have represented definitive proof of individual identity in our society. We trust them to tell us who committed a crime, whether a criminal record exists, and how to resolve questions of disputed identity.

But in Suspect Identities, Simon Cole reveals that the history of criminal identification is far murkier than we have been led to believe. Cole...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674010027
• ISBN13: 9780674010024
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 382 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Good overview of history of finger mark matching

The book gives a historical overview of fingerprinting and why anthropometry was more inefficient for the police in the beginning of the 20th century. It furthermore is somewhat critical on the conclusions that are drawn in this field, and the limitations that exist. Also it discusses possibilities that suspects are not found in the database of fingerprints whereas the fingerprints are actually in it. We see that more discussion on the use of fingerprints as evidence is available on the Internet, in literature and in court. It is always good to remain critical and in this way the book helps in the discussion. In my opinion more scientific research is needed in this field, which can help to have a good overview of limitations and acceptable use. The large finger print databases that exist certainly help to do more research

Very timely and interesting

As is not often enough the case with academic writing, Simon Cole's book is at the very cutting edge of his discipline. Not two weeks ago, a court in Pennsylvania, after hearing testimony from Dr. Cole, held that fingerprint examiners would not be allowed to testify that a fingerprint from the crime scene "matches" that of the defendant. Calling fingerprint identification techniques subjective and scientifically unreliable, Judge Pollack raised the bar for fingerprint examiners. Simon Cole's fascinating book begins by discussing the history of criminal identification techniques, exploring both the scientific and sociological mores that influenced the development of these techniques. The book then analyzes, in detail, the science of fingerprint examination and identifies the many flaws and inconsistencies in its current application around the world. Suspect Identities puts the recent developments in our criminal justice system into perspective and provides the only source for this information. No other book on this topic provides such a clear, comprehensive and accurate accounting of both the history and the current state of fingerprint identification techniques.

loads of interesting stuff

even one mistake in fingerprint verification shows that it isnot justified to take fingerprints identification as absolute, which is how it is currently taken in the legal world. thus, the shirley mckie case and the other misconduct cases deserve to be highlighted. in the book, on page 281, the author mentions proficiency tests on fingerprint laboratories. in 1998, 15 percent of 91 participants made false positive identifications. i think this shows the need for fingerprint identification to be verified, when dealing with an individual case, by independent examiners. i grant that fingerprints seem to be always different from person to person, but this is hardly the point. the point is whether the examiners will determine the fingerprints to be different. i found the book to be extremely interesting.

fascinating history

I found this book to be a lively, fascinating history. The story of the search for a "scientific" method of indentification is full of suspect characters and creepy details that are almost too strange to be true. It's very disturbing to think that our jails are full of people who were locked up on the basis of junk science. Every juror who is asked to convict someone on the basis of fingerprint evidence should have to read this book first.