On the Individuality of Fingerprints: Models and Methods

Fingerprint individuality is the study of the extent of uniqueness of fingerprints and is the central premise of expert testimony in court. A forensic expert testifies whether a pair of fingerprints is either a match or non-match by comparing salient features of the fingerprint pair. However, the experts are rarely questioned on the uncertainty associated with the match: How likely is the observed match between the fingerprint pair due to just random chance? The main concern with the admissibility of fingerprint evidence is that the matching error rates (i.e., the fundamental error rates of matching by the human expert) are unknown.