This is the official FBI Guide to the Science of Fingerprints... material the Bureau has provided to law enforcement agencies worldwide, and after several decades of trying criminal cases l strongly suggest that no defense attorney should be without this book in his or her library for reference before entering any trial in which fingerprint evidence might be submitted. Too often I've seen police testify that there was a 'match' between the defendant's prints and those found at the scene of a crime, and if a hearsay objection is over-ruled, without the information contained in this book, the average defense attorney is at a disadvantage to cross-examine the witness as to the details of how this conclusion was reached, - and also not competent to launch a credible protest to a fingerprint expert's qualification to testify, thereby eliminating some lab employee one step above janitor from testifying as to his opinion about alleged match being found. It's also nice to have enough knowledge to ask some procedural questions of a lab tech that 'lifted' the subject prints, and the method used for comparison, because in real life, those fantastic computer screens seen in the CSI television shows comparing prints and the fact that a 'match' exists, never seem to make it into the courtroom. If you think you already know enough about dermatoglyphics to cross--examine some qualified fingerprint expert, then give yourself this vocabulary test on 22 terms that a fingerprint witness might use, and see if you know what each one of them means in relationship to the science of fingerprints... and if you fail the test, then start reading this book before your next trial.. and if you can't, don't worry... this book contains more than 432 illustrations, giving you everything you need to know about fingerprints. Accidental Whorl Bifurcation Central Pocket Loop Core Delta Diversion Double Loop Ending Ridge Extensions Fingerprint chart for court testimony Latent Impressions Looping Ridge Plain Arch Plain Whorl Powdering Radial Loop Ridge Counting Scarred Patterns Tented Arch Note that this is a full 81/2" x 11" 242-page workbook-sized publication that also contains 432 helpful illustrations + paginated table of contents, for your ease in finding sections. Retired criminal defense trial attorney Gene Grossman provided a ForeWord for this book, and also did the complete job of formatting it for print. Mr. Grossman is the author of the popular crime series of book, the Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries, all available in print and deBook formats at Amazon.
About the Author: GENE GROSSMAN was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in the North side neighborhood of Albany Park, where he attended Hibbard Elementary and Von Steuben High School. He pursued majors in psychology, chemistry and mathematics at Wright Junior College, Roosevelt University and Illinois Institute of Technology - working his way through high school and college by playing piano in clubs on Chicago's then-famous "Rush Street." After moving to Southern California, he worked his way through law school playing piano, and appeared as a musician in seven major motion pictures. While slowly building his law practice, Gene purchased a truckload of movie equipment (a 5-ton grip & light package) that he rented out to movie production companies. Always having been interested in boating, getting divorced prompted him to move onto a 45-foot Chris Craft motor yacht in Marina del Rey California, instead of into an apartment. Years later, while serving as navigator on a yacht delivery from the U.S. to Tortola, Gene wrote his first book, "Celestial Navigation for Dummies" (some time before the popular series of 'Dummies' books was created). He used his own production equipment to shoot a video on the subject Celestial Navigation - Sextant Use and the Sun Noon Shot and at the same time unintentionally started the nautical video industry. Over the next few years he followed that first title up with more than 30 other educational video titles (now in DVD format) now all featured on BoatingDVDs.com, one of the numerous domains his production company maintains, featuring many categories of educational programs (MagicLampDVDs.com). After almost 20 years as a trial attorney, Gene started writing novels and now spends most of his time in Marina del Rey California aboard his boat MAGIC LAMP, where he created the popular series of Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries, and the 5-book series of Suzi B. Mysteries, plus over 20 non-fiction titles like "How Not to Play Golf," "How to Write a Mystery Novel," "Deposition Preparation," and many more, all fully described on his publisher's website www.LegalMystery.com.