Criminal investigators are tasked with solving the crime and finding the suspect responsible. Sometimes the crime is very difficult to solve, but with the right evidence and the right tools, the investigation can be answered a little more easily. The use of fingerprints is one of the primary tools used at crime scenes. Investigators find them at the crime scene and analyze them in the laboratory to determine who the prints belong to. Each person has an individual fingerprint, which is why it is a very useful piece of evidence. Sir Francis Galton discovered that engravings could be classified into different types as well as different groups. Fingerprint searches conducted decades earlier shaped the way detectives identify suspects and victims. The use of fingerprints dates back to the 1800s. Sir William Herschel used fingerprints as signatures on civil contracts, before they were deemed useful for crimes (History of Fingerprints Timeline, 2012). A British surgeon, Dr. Henry Faulds, wrote about the use of fingerprints for personal identification. He first looked at the impressions on clay pottery and studied the ridges and patterns they had made in the clay. In 1891, Juan Vucetich suggested starting to take fingerprints of criminals in order to keep those prints on file. The following year, Vucetich identified the fingerprint of a woman who had killed her two sons. Investigators found his fingerprint and were able to correctly establish his identity. Charles Darwin's cousin, Sir Francis Galton, wrote and published the first book on fingerprints. He wrote about how each individual has a unique fingerprint due to certain traits in each fingerprint (History of Fingerprints, 2012). The popularity of fingerprints increased significantly in the United States in the early 1900s. Police departments and the FBI began using the...... middle of paper ......A. Maria, Ruth M. Robin. (2009). Latent fingerprints: a perspective on the state of the science. Forensic communications. 11.4. Gurdoglanyan, Diana (2001). Fingerprints used in forensic investigations. Retrieved November 25, 2013 from http://www.bxscience.edu/publications/forensics../articles/fingerprinting/r-fing01.htm.Judson, Olivia. (2008). Sticky Fingers: Fingerprints are one of the oldest biometric measures of identity. What do we really know about them? Natural history. 117.10. p16.Radford, Dean. (2011). Fingerprints led to an arrest in a 1978 homicide at a mobile park near Renton. Retrieved December 14, 2013 from http://www.rentonreporter.com/news/130465243.html. FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation. Integrated automated fingerprint identification system. Accessed December 14, 2013 http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/fingerprints_biometrics/iafis.