CLPEX Chat Board

Hello,

Does anyone know of a good reference source for the features of palm print comparisons? I am looking for something that trainees could use to help acclimate them to the various palm characteristics.

Thanks,
Andrew

Andrew Reitnauer MSFE, CLPE, CLE, CSLE, CSCSA, LPE, CPO, F.F.S.
Forensic Scientist III
Nassau County Medical Examiner's Office
Latent Print Section

Palmar Creases, Julian Verov, Fingerprint Whorld, 20:76 (1994)

Palmistry Refined, Bradley J. Butler, Identification Canada, 21:3 (1998)

The Significance of Using Level 1 Detail in Latent Print Examinations. Jeffrey D. Saviano, Journal of Forensic Identification, 53:2, (2003)

Palmar Flexion Crease Identification, Daid R. Ashbaugh, Journal of Forensic Identification, 41:4, (1991)

Dermatoglyphics, L.S. Penrose, Scientific American, 221:6 (1969)

The Classification and Identification of Palm Prints, Douglas Grant, The Police Journal (London), Oct-Dec 1948 and Jan-March 1949 (1949) *Note: This is referenced in Journal of Criminal Law, etc., 40:2 (1949-50)

Of course, Ron Smith (RS&A) is the individual to contact.

Ernie

Andrew

Ernie threw some good ones up there, BUT if you want actual data (such as frequency data for occurences, i.e. How often does a Double Loop appear in the hypothenar? etc.) then I might suggest:

1. Alice and her team has done a study of these features in palms and their occurences. It's quite detailed. They have various versions in publication, but may be able to share an advanced copy if you contact her.

2. Eric Ray, AZ DPS, same thing. Did a study, presented at IAI and local IAI stuff and has a publication in press. Again, a nice email may get a peek at an advanced copy.

3. By far and the best in my opinion (and partly the inspiration from which Alice and Eric are drawing but with an Anglo-Saxon/US, English speaking approach) is actually an entire book on Palm Prints and their ridge flow, crease, and shape clues with data on frequencies of occurence from 70,000 pairs of palm prints) is a book by Tietze and Witthuhn. It's a 2001 publication, but it is entirely in German. It's a great book, if you speak German. I think you can download a free pdf of it from BKA in Germany (or at least you could). I have heard that their inspiration for this book was heavily influenced by attending Ron Smith's course when it was held in Switzerland for the German speakers there, but that is just hear-say; I haven't confirmed that. But so the legend goes...

g.

So, I took Glenn's last post as a challenge and I found the book he referenced. I took German in high school and college so I was able to make out the general structure of the BKA website...then I found Google Translate. Nonetheless, for those interested, the link to the book on Palm Print Pattern Statistics is http://www.bka.de/nn_205960/SharedDocs/ ... puren.html Hope this works for those that are interseted. I definitely cannot translate the entire book but I'm guessing Google Translate will work well with short sections.

Cheers!

I've tried using Google Translate on this book in the past with mixed results. I can generally get an idea of what they mean, but Translate has trouble with some of the more technical terms. Also, some of the 'slang' terms that we have in our discipline are translated literally, which makes for interesting reading. Overall, their results are consistent with the smaller studies that g. mentioned above.