Fingermarks and Other Impressions Left by the Human Body - A Review (August 2007-July 2010)

The purpose of this paper is to review the scientific literature from August 2007 to July 2010. The review is focused on more than 420 published papers. The review will not cover information coming from international meetings available only in abstract form. Fingermarks constitute an important chapter with coverage of the identification process as well as detection techniques on various surfaces. We note that the research has been very dense both at exploring and understanding current detection methods as well as bringing groundbreaking techniques to increase the number of marks detected from various objects. The recent report from the US National Research Council (NRC) is a milestone that has promoted a critical discussion on the state of forensic science and its associated research. We can expect a surge of interest in research in relation to cognitive aspect of mark and print comparison, establishment of relevant forensic error rates and statistical modelling of the selectivity of marks' attributes. Other biometric means of forensic identification such as footmarks or earmarks are also covered in the report. Compared to previous years, we noted a decrease in the number of submission in these areas. No doubt that the NRC report has set the seed for further investigation of these fields as well.