Perdurability of Fingerprints on Submerged Metal and Glass in Stagnated Water

Abstract

Fingerprints constitute one of the elements of main trial contribution to the clarification and identification of the authors of crime scenes. That is why the authors try to destroy them, when submerging into water the objects they manipulated. The perdurability of these prints on surfaces objects submerged into water and revealed with physical developing agents of national production has become a question that has been not enough studied in Cuba. The present study exposes the perdurability of fingerprints on metal and glass submerged into stagnated fresh water. Angoniriz, "aluminum" colors (on glass) and "brown" (on aluminum) as agents developing powders were used. The effectiveness of both developing agents en the studied surfaces is shown on this study as a result, as well as the identification value of the revealed prints taking into account the submerging time into water. This study also propose the treatment of surfaces having latent prints to be used on Criminal identification processes.