Okuzeka
Criminal Law & Justice vocabulary · Evidence & Forensics

Fingerprint

Meaning in criminal law & justice, with examples

/ˈfɪŋɡəprɪnt/nounCore term

In criminal law & justice, fingerprint means: The pattern of lines on the end of a finger, or the mark it leaves on a surface, which police use to identify people.

In Turkish: parmak izi

How it is used

Police 'take' a suspect's fingerprints and 'lift' or 'find' fingerprints at a scene; a 'match' links a print to a person. Informally people say 'prints' ('his prints were on the glass'). The verb 'fingerprint someone' means to record their prints.

Example sentences

  1. His fingerprints were found on the inside of the window.

  2. All suspects are photographed and fingerprinted at the station.

  3. The fingerprint did not match anyone on the database.

Common collocations

  • take fingerprints
  • lift fingerprints
  • fingerprint match
  • fingerprint database
  • leave fingerprints
  • forensicUsing scientific methods to investigate crimes and produce evidence for courts, such as analysing blood, fibres or digital data.
  • DNA evidenceEvidence based on the genetic material in body cells, such as hair, skin or saliva, which can link a person to a place or object with a high degree of certainty.
  • crime sceneThe place where a crime happened, where police and forensic experts look for evidence before anything is moved.
  • evidenceInformation, objects, documents or testimony that a court can use to decide whether something is true, for example whether the defendant committed the crime.

More terms: Evidence & Forensics

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not legal advice.