1Research scholar, Amity Institute of Forensic Science, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, e-mail-mrdshrm@gmail.com
2Head of Department & Associate Professor, College of traffic Management (CTM) - Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), Faridabad, India, e-mail- shrutigupta@irte.com
3Deputy director, Forensic Science Laboratory, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, e-mail- sudhirkumar8@gmail.com
*Corresponding Author: Dr. Shruti Gupta, Head of Department & Associate Professor, College of Traffic Management (CTM) - Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), Faridabade, Haryana, India. e-mail- shrutigupta@irte.com
Online published on 2 November, 2022.
Many skin formulations, such as hand sanitizers and hand creams, are often utilised. When applied to the skin, the ingredients of such formulations can remain on the superficial level. This is extremely persuasive in fingerprint detection field since the components in hand sanitizer and hand cream can survive upon friction ridge skin and transported to the surface after deposition. The present study is aimed to determine whether or not the application of these, prior to fingerprint deposition, influences the subsequent chemical detection of fingerprints.
In this study, 560 latent fingerprint samples were collected for the analysis. These samples were classified in seven timeline-based categories of 80 samples each (Without any application as Standard, after application – Gap of 10 minutes, 15 days, 1 month, 2 months, 4 months and 6 months). Each seven timeline-based categories were further sub-divided in two groups i.e., 40 samples of hand sanitizers and 40 samples of hand creams respectively. The four conventional methods of examination utilized were: ninhydrin, silver nitrate, iodine fuming and cyanoacrylate.
After examination, individuals who used hand sanitizer compared to those who used hand cream revealed a highly significant difference in the visibility and width of the ridge impressions. The hand sanitizer fingerprints demonstrated an improvement in overall fingerprint development quality in most of the chemical methods used for their development when compared to the matching hand cream fingerprints after being aged for various intervals.
Conventional methods, Forensic science, Hand creams, Hand sanitizers, Latent fingerprints
