Fingerprints are the most reliable and dependable legal biometric evidence. In the present study, 300 healthy and consenting adults aged between 18–25 years of Delhi, India were asked for their 10-digits fingerprints. The aims were to determine the frequency distribution of various fingerprint patterns with establishing most dominant pattern type. Also to find out whether any statistically significant sex difference exists. It was found that loops were predominantly higher (48.66%) whereas whorls were second highest (34.34%) while arches were least common (17.00%) amongst both male and female sexes. The ridges were counted in the left of centre (LoC) area of right thumb and mean value was calculated. The results have shown that a fingerprint ridge density 10–17 ridges/25 mm2 is more likely to be of male origin while fingerprint ridge density 18–25 ridges/25 mm2 is more likely of female origin. Thus suggests a positive significance of epidermal ridge density between sexes. The results of the study may provide useful information about the sex of the perpetrator in forensic case investigations while narrowing down their search from a large sample.
Fingerprints, ridge density, pattern types, north Indian population
