Method for fingerprints age determination

The aim of this study was to establish an estimation relationship of the age of fingerprints left on surfaces, by morphological, structural, macro-and microscopic examinations, together with biochemical and titration DNA tests in order to confirm the rate of biological degradation during a certain period. The capacity of counting the age of a fingerprint lead to the possibility to place it in time and to correlate it with the time of doing the criminal act, bringing us information about the presence of a person in a certain place and period. As research methods we used forensic techniques for fingerprints, as well as cytology and molecular biological methods (DNA analysis, DNA quantification with TaqMan using Real Time PCR). The estimation of the age of fingerprints using these methods offers us the advantages of standardization based on relationships between morphological or/and biochemical characteristics depending on time, as well as the possibility to assign as a rough guide a blood type to an individual. he present research study has had, as a starting point, the necessity of solving the complex problems resulting from the practical forensic daily work, having the purpose of combating or sustaining certain statements made by subjects, regarding their own traces left within the perimeters representing criminal areas. The study was carried out during two years and its main objectives were the following ones: 1. Establishing and quantifying the evolution of fingerprints aging process, from the point of view of: