Digital capture of fingerprints in a disaster victim identification setting: a review and case study

• Main Authors: Bryan T. Johnson (Author), John A. J. M. Riemen (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Oxford University Press, 2018-10-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 2096-1790; 2471-1411; 10.1080/20961790.2018.1521327
• Keywords: Forensic sciences; disaster victim identification; postmortem fingerprints; digital fingerprint capture; INTERPOL DVI; ridgeology; Criminal law and procedure; K5000-5582; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Forensic Sciences Research, Vol 0, Iss 0, Pp 1-10 (2018)

Identification of victims following a mass fatality is conducted by collecting and analysing a series of scientific identifiers and contextual information of each decedent. Recently, there has been a paradigm shift demanding that this complex identification process be accelerated to meet the needs of the surviving families, politicians and even the media. Postmortem fingerprint identification is a fast and efficient means of victim identification, and through the use of new advances in technology, the digital capture of fingerprints in a Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) setting will play a strong role. This paper provides an overview of current technology and explains how this technology can adapt to current DVI procedures. The Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) incident is a recent example of a DVI event that utilized new digital fingerprint capture technology and further demonstrates why such technology is warranted in future mass fatality operations.