Baby Foot Prints
Someone has landed on DCC by searching for an answer to this question:
“are newborn foot prints as made in the hospital reliable to identify an adult?”
If I remember correctly, the answer hinges on a few factors:
- who well were the prints made e.g. the proper amount of ink as not to drown the baby’s ridges
- the best part for identification in a baby foot would be the ball and obviously this is tricky as the baby’s foot is curled
I’d like to open the discussion here to finger/foot printing experts to voice their opinions so please leave your comments and I will post them a.s.a.p. I’d also like to hear if anyone has experience with successfully identifying an adult from a newborn’s print.
Thanks, Vids
Categories: Forensics, Missing Persons
Tags: Evidence, Identification
In theory it is definitely possible, but in practice in is very tricky due to the difficulties in recording the baby prints for the reasons suggested above and the fact that babys ridges are very fine and close together. I had enough trouble getting my own kids hand and footprints, and I’m supposed to be an expert!
The reason that footprints are taken is because they are easier to take as the hands are usually closed in a fist for the first hours / days
You wouldn’t use the ball of a foot to identify an adult due to lack of detail. The best place would be the fleshy area just before the toes.
Thank you, Richard. I understand from your tweets that it is not routine in the UK to footprint newborns. Is there a rule to place the mother’s fingerprint next to the baby’s footprints?
Interesting proposition. Ridge detail aside; the relative shape, size and disposition of the toes and fleshy parts could, in theory, be used as an indicative guide but not, im my view, reliable enough for identification. Can’t take into account any subsequent injury (broken toes?) disease or improper footwear over the years distorting the positions of the toes.
@Andy: Can a skin disease alter the fleshy part before the toes enough to make a footprint unreliable?
I guess this is one for Richard as well!
As far as I know, there are no footprints or fingerprints taken at UK maternity units, but I will ask the midwives that I know.
As far as skin conditions are concerned there are a few that can make comparisons more difficult, but it doesn’t have to be a ‘show stopper’.
@ Richard Case:
Hi Richard, I may be reading one of your responses wrong but why wouldnt you use the ball of the foot?
The areas of skin which provide a fingerprint is known as Friction Ridge Skin. Friction Ridge Skin is found on the hands and the soles of the feet. Friction Ridge Skin develops between 6 and 24 weeks of foetal development.
Around 6 weeks, the hands and feet begin to take shape and bulges appear which are known as volar pads. It is the internal and external pressures and stresses within the womb that affect the development of these bulges and along with genetics help determine the patterns of the fingerprints.
At around 8 weeks the fingers and toes seperately and the main creases start to appear. At around 13 weeks the volar pads start to regress.
Friction Ridge Skin is composed of 2 layers – an inner layer called the dermis and an outer layer called the epidermis. The epidermis consists of four layers, the top layer being the surface of the friction ridge skin which is constantly shredding and the bottom layer known as the generating layer. The generating layer is constantly replacing the top layer which has previously shed.
At 13 weeks, ridges begin to form in the generating layer. Due to a combination of genetics and various stresses exerted on the developing foetus which are so unpredicable and unique to that pregnancy that it is impossible to replicate. The generating layer will continue to generate the same friction ridge structure throughout life and the friction ridge structure will remain unchanged. This is how every fingerprint is unique , including those of twins.
At 24 weeks of foetal development the friction ridge skin is fully formed and is persistent throughout life.
Because of the above providing you have both the baby footprint and adult footprint, and both the same areas are disclosed in both you should be able to make a comparison.
The very short answer:
All things being equal, the friction skin characteristics of feet, palms and fingers do not change as a person ages. The pattern(s) will remain the same barring scars from injury or a Plantar’s Wart …
Hope this helps
Paul (Celt_Dog on Twitter)
@ Fingerprint Expert
Its not that you couldn’t or I wouldn’t use the ridge detail on the ball of the foot, but given full footprints I would never begin my comparison there. Reasons:
Unless nicely pedicured adult skin in this area can often be hard and cracked
The ridge detail in this area does not (in my experience) have focal points i.e. patterns or deltas
In the handful of footprint cases I’ve worked on, the better marks are often left by the contact areas on the front of the foot.
Hope this clarifies my earlier answer