Role of lip prints as a novel tool in personal identification: An overview

Abstract

Establishing a person′s identity is a very important process in civil and criminal cases. In the field of forensic sciences, the lip prints have been proven to be an imperative tool in identifying a person positively. Today, in India, as well as worldwide, crimes of diverse character are on the rise. Both criminals and knowledgeable elite of the public are making use of stylish methodological measures while committing crimes to put forensic scientist, police, and the public off the scene. Hence, the role of crime scene detectives has become more challenging than ever in this civilized modern world. Dental, fingerprint, and DNA comparisons are probably the most common techniques, allowing fast and secure identification processes. However, since they cannot always be used, sometimes it is necessary to apply different and less-known techniques. Nevertheless, in certain circumstances related to the scene of the crime or due to the lack of experienced personnel, these techniques might be unavailable; therefore, there is still an increasing need for reliable alternative methods of establishing identity.

Keywords

• cheiloscopy
• forensic odontology
• lip anatomy
• lip prints