The term “Criminalistics” comes from the Latin word “crimen” (=charge, misdemeanor). Colloquially this term is often mistakenly used in the same way as criminology. Criminalistics deals with methods to combat criminals with the use of preventive (pre-emptive) means and prosecuting (repressive) measures. While criminology is the study of the crime itself.
The increasing technological progress allows the rapid measurement of biological characteristics that decidedly identifies a human being. The reliability of the biometric results is based on four basic characteristics.
The automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) is a system for storing and processing digital fingerprints. By digitizing the fingerprints, found traces can be compared to those recorded in the database. The system was launched in Germany in 1993 and today it contains about 3 million fingerprints.
ACE-V (Analysis, Comparison, Evaluation and Verification) is a scientific method for the examination and documentation of latent fingerprints.
The ACE-V method was first introduced in the 1980s by David Ashbaugh, a renowned Canadian fingerprint expert. Since then, it became the most common method of fingerprint examination worldwide.
