Identification Sections or Forensic Investigation Sections, being particularly adapted in the field of Criminal Investigation, through the use of fingerprint have become, in the mind of the citizen, synonymous with locating and identifying criminal offenders. This is accomplished by comparing the latent or crime scene prints with the inked impressions of known offenders. Many criminals are brought to justice each year through this process. But it does have a more human side as well; the identification of children through their foot or fingerprints; restoring the identity of an amnesia victim; or by identifying the disaster victim.

However, the fingerprint identification process has been in actual practice for less than 90 years. In tracing the origin of the science of fingerprints we must draw a line of distinction between the realization of fingerprints of fingerprints and the operational use of fingerprints in the identification of people.

It is a noteworthy circumstance that the Bible holds many direct and indirect allusions to fingerprints and skin prints. The Apostle Paul used his own fingerprints to sign his letters (II Thessalonians 3:17).

While the western world was still in the period known as the Dark Ages, the Chinese were using fingerprints in their daily business and legal enterprises. The Chinese Law Book of Yung-Hwui written during the Tang period, about 650 AD, made mention of fingerprinting, commenting on an older method of preparing legal documents. His notation reads as follows: 'To divorce a wife the husband must give a document setting forth which of the seven reasons was assigned for the action... All letters should be written in the husband's own handwriting, but in case he is unable to write, he must sign with his fingerprints.'

Early in the twelfth century, a Chinese author, Shi-naingan, wrote a series of crime novels, entitled ' The Story of the River Bank '. In this work, the author makes reference to the use of fingerprints in the criminal identification. The translation reads as follows: 'WuSung captured the two women who had killed his brother. He compelled them to ink their fingers and recorded their fingerprints.' From this can we conclude that the science of fingerprints had already found its place in Chinese criminal practices?

It is conjectural to what extent these earlier instances of fingerprinting were intended for actual identification of persons impressing the prints. Certainly in some cases the object was simply to add more or less superstitious solemnity to business contracts, through the personal contact of the contracting parties' fingerprints with the written record.

A scientific approach to fingerprinting was essential before it could be put to practical use on any extensive scale. The scientific approach and acceptance by a recognized power came in 1901. That year marked the official introduction of fingerprinting for criminal identification in England and Wales. The system employed was developed by Mr. (later Sir) Edward Richard Henry, based upon the works of Sir Francis Galton. Henry simplified the fingerprint classification scheme and made it applicable to police identification. It is this basic Henry System, modified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is still in use by the FBI and throughout the United States. Although the FBI and many state, county and municipal agencies have given up the old Henry method for classification for the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) this computer process still uses the basic concepts of Henry to us as a search filter in limiting the number of candidates.

In 1917, People vs. Jennings, (IL) the Supreme Court granted judicial notice to the science of fingerprints, giving court acceptance and validity to the fingerprint identification as being a positive means for identification. In 1909, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was formed and in 1924, by an act of Congress, the Identification Section of the FBI was officially established.