CLASS COPY: DO NOT WRITE ON THIS SHEET
Fingerprint Study Guide
Use Chapter 15 of the Forensic Science textbook to answer the following questions (either write complete
sentences or copy the question):
1. What are fingerprints?
2. What is anthropometry and who developed it? Why is it important to fingerprints?
3. Who provided enough research into the area of fingerprinting that police agencies became aware of its
potential application in forensics?
4. What are the three fundamental principles of fingerprints?
5. What is friction ridge skin and where is it located?
6. What are the three basic fingerprint patterns and their variations?
7. Which patterns contain features called the core and delta? What are these features?
8. What are minutiae? Give three examples.
9. What is the name of the fingerprint classification system that the U.S. used for many years?
10. Describe the original Henry system of fingerprint identification
11. What is AFIS?
12. Explain the role of fingerprints in the apprehension of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s killer.