Date of Award

Spring 5-2013

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Criminal Justice

First Advisor

Dean Bertram

Advisor Department

Criminal Justice

Abstract

It is already known that the latent fingerprints of adults and the latent fingerprints of prepubescent children are different from each other in chemical makeup. This study compares the latent fingerprints of prepubescent children to each other—specifically attempting to determine if there are any noticeable differences between the latent prints of Caucasian male and female children using the processing methods of ninhydrin and indane dione. The latent fingerprints included in the study were processed and graded. Two independent t-tests as well as a factorial ANOVA were performed on the acquired data. It was found that there is not a significant difference between the fingerprints of the males and the females with either method. As well, no significant difference was found between the two processing methods. Thus, according to this study, a latent fingerprint of a Caucasian prepubescent child, regardless of gender, should develop equally well with ninhydrin or indane dione.

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