Latent Prints in the Presence of Ignitable Liquids
Faculty Mentor
Charles Hause
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
May 2025
End Date
May 2025
Location
PUB NCR
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Sociology and Justice Studies
Abstract
There have been inquiries about best practices of packaging and processing for fire debris evidence because in many situations, forensic professionals are faced with the problem of deciding which part of a piece of evidence they are going to use/test knowing that they will likely lose the rest. Through testing, we are determining how destructive ignitable liquids and gaseous fumes are to latent prints and how fast they have to be processed in order to give the detective a time frame to work with to make decisions for a case. Figuring out what limitations there are to preserving a print from these conditions will be extremely helpful in the accuracy of latent examiner’s results as well as increase the probability that forensic teams (and other teams) collect evidence in a way that will prevent damage to possible prints. We are analyzing these limitations through field studies examining temperature changes, surface differences, the chemical makeup of ignitable liquids, plus their reaction to different components of the fingerprint matrix, as well as additional research conducted through literary review and interviews with forensic professionals.
Recommended Citation
Acheson, Sarah Nicole, "Latent Prints in the Presence of Ignitable Liquids" (2025). 2025 Symposium. 1.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2025/ps_2025/p2_2025/1
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Latent Prints in the Presence of Ignitable Liquids
PUB NCR
There have been inquiries about best practices of packaging and processing for fire debris evidence because in many situations, forensic professionals are faced with the problem of deciding which part of a piece of evidence they are going to use/test knowing that they will likely lose the rest. Through testing, we are determining how destructive ignitable liquids and gaseous fumes are to latent prints and how fast they have to be processed in order to give the detective a time frame to work with to make decisions for a case. Figuring out what limitations there are to preserving a print from these conditions will be extremely helpful in the accuracy of latent examiner’s results as well as increase the probability that forensic teams (and other teams) collect evidence in a way that will prevent damage to possible prints. We are analyzing these limitations through field studies examining temperature changes, surface differences, the chemical makeup of ignitable liquids, plus their reaction to different components of the fingerprint matrix, as well as additional research conducted through literary review and interviews with forensic professionals.
