Problems of Forensic Sciences 2005 Vol. 64 (LXIV) 333-342
VISUALISATION OF FINGERPRINTS ON STICKY SIDE OF ADHESIVE TAPES
Jerzy BRZOZOWSKI1, Irena BIAŁEK1, Paweł SUBIK2
1Institute of Forensic Research, Krakow
2Faculty of Chemistry, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
Streszczenie
Adhesive tapes are the objects commonly found on the scenes of crime. Their sticky sides, on which one can frequently come across the fingerprints, are atypical surfaces and require special treatment. The most commonly used glues are acrylate glues and rubber (natural and synthetic) glues. The researches were conducted to test effectiveness of latent print development methods using following reagents: Sticky-side Powder, Wetwop, Gentian Violet (two formulas of which the first one required addition of phenol and the second one didn’t). Experiments lasted for 16 weeks and proved Wetwop to be most universal of the tested reagents. It gave good results on every kind of tested adhesive layer and its effectiveness was similar for both fresh and several months old prints. The other methods showed limited effectiveness, and acrylate layer of adhesive tape occurred to be the worst surface to visualise latent fingerprints on.
Słowa kluczowe
Latent fingerprints; Adhesive tapes; Wetwop; Sticky-side Powder; Gentian Violet; Comparison.