From "Law and Order" to "CSI," not to mention real life, investigators have used fingerprints as the gold standard for linking criminals to a crime. But if a perpetrator leaves prints from different fingers in two different crime scenes, these scenes are very difficult to link, and the trace can go cold.
  • MrCookieRespect
    8·
    5 months ago

    This was known long ago, but its very very very improbable to have two people with the same fingerprints in the same area, let alone be part of a crime/ a suspect.

    Its just like DNA, its not perfectly unique but the combination of stuff is what gets you arrested.

    • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
      4·
      5 months ago

      Ok, so caveat: this trivia is a few decades old in my head… but I thought there was a higher chance of similar fingerprints if there’s a genetic relationship? Which meant that mistaken identities were more common because of socio-economic and geographic factors for relations.

  • superfes@lemmy.world
    3·
    5 months ago

    Oi, not this stupid headline again…

    Not unique per individual, i.e. your own fingerprints are similar.