How courts use fingerprints, the icons of forensic science, is on the cusp of a much-needed revolution. In response to claims that their use is often unscientific, statistical tools are now being designed to determine the probability that "matches" between a suspect and prints from a crime scene are spurious.rnIf used in court, these tools could vastly reduce the number of people convicted of crimes they didn't commit. But their use may also face resistance from some fingerprint analysts who are reluctant to give up the long-held, but incorrect, notion that crime-scene fingerprints could only have originated from one person.
展开▼
