"What do you think of how much one is willing to kill another today?" An excerpt from the book of forensic experts

What is the identification

People are similar, there are twins, identical twins are born. Yet there are differences between them. Let tiny, even at the level of a single segment in the DNA chain, a barely noticeable birthmark on the back, or the distance between the front teeth - but there are. Forensics except ballistics, drug analysis and poisons, photographs and other technical things involved two overriding concerns:

• Bound person to a particular subject, place and if you are lucky, time.
• Identification of the individual, that is, by comparing one person with another, or many. Professional language it sounds like: one to one or one to many.

So what is unique to each person? Fingerprints, you say, and DNA. That's right, that's what first comes to mind. Some of you, I am sure, will point to the iris and retina. And, too, they will be right. Did you know that the structure of the teeth, ears and lips too human is unique?

Nothing is worth spending a little experiment. Touch up lips lipstick and a dab of white paper towel. Ask a colleague to do the same. Make sure that there is a difference. Just do not go with such lips couple outside their hometown. You can not understand. On the women's advice, of course, does not apply.

With ear everything a little more complicated. Paint it is not necessary, simply take a picture of big ears a few of their friends and compare photos.

If it is necessary to identify a living person, is used for the identification of:

• fingerprints and palm prints;
• iris and retina;
• voice;
• the structure of the face;
• gait;
• arrangement of veins in the hands;
• handwriting;
• structure teeth;
• ear;
• lips.

But we have to identify the body in different circumstances. When we are dealing with a dead body, we will explore:

• fingerprints and palm prints, if any;
• DNA, the sources of which are the blood, saliva, semen, hair roots, skin, skeletal system;
• tooth structure, if somehow saved oral cavity.

Here we should mention that the fingerprints and palm prints of the corpse is not always stored in a condition suitable for the comparison procedure. The corpse can burn for a long time to lie in the water, in a closed car, simply go bad. But DNA passes the test and the time and fire, and water, and an explosion. As for the structure of the teeth, it is a very complicated procedure, since the comparison is necessary to have a person panoramic images taken during his lifetime.

Identification of living - it is a tangled issue from a theoretical point of view, although the process is more or less worked out. The fact that professionals still argue about which of the methods of identification are immaculate, and which have the error and, therefore, can lead to incorrect results.

It is believed that fingerprinting is infallible. And we will take as long as this premise, although it is very shaky. The question "Why?" I will answer later. extremely reliable DNA analysisSince he, like any self-respecting scientific method, based on statistical data.

The category may include absolute and identification of the iris and the retina, vein geometry, structure, ear and mouth shape.

these methods are very difficult technically, so used is not always. However, the uniqueness of iris and retinal vein geometry are increasingly used in biometric access systems. But the ear and mouth "unlucky", they are almost forgotten. Identification of people walk - the area is quite young, and it is difficult to say how it is accustomed in the future.

Today, issues of identification and is also involved in a separate discipline - biometrics, based on the measurement and analysis of physiological, anatomical or behavioral characteristics of a person. She was born at the junction of physiology, physics and computer technology and extremely quickly turned into supervostrebovannuyu field of science and industry with billions in annual turnover. Company, develops and markets biometric systems, claim that their products are perfect. And indeed, it is with each passing year becomes more and more accurate and easier to use due to advanced mathematical software, smart, self-learning software and more sensitive sensors.

To assess the accuracy of biometric recognition systems, there are several criteria, chief among them:

• mistakenly correct identification (false positive identification);
• mistaken misidentification (false negative identification).

In the first case, the system can not recognize the man, and the second did not recognize the right. Imagine a situation where a biometric access control in the command bunker does not recognize the chief of staff? So that there is the General Staff, a person can not get home, for splurging on an expensive biometric system instead of the usual door key. The lower the false positive and false negative, the system is reliable.

The more serious (and correspondingly expensive) biometric system, the more test elements it includes. Good models often use fingerprints, iris analysis and in addition a voice or facial morphology. US Marines in Afghanistan and Iraq have long been equipped with the device, with a view reminiscent of a regular camera. The camera memory included database irises persons in the past arrested on suspicion of terrorism. At a meeting with the suspected soldiers require to raise their hands and look into the eye of the camera from him. A comparison is carried out instantly. Israeli police hold like a miniature system based on the comparison of fingerprints. the memory device stores the tens of thousands of "sewn" prints, but with a negative result of the search request sent to the main national database to which the answer comes immediately.

We are not accidentally left in the end identification based on voice recognition and handwriting comparison. Both have a long history and are used very widely.

You, of course, read "The First Circle" Solzhenitsyn? The Stalinist "sharashka" scientists-cons are developing recognition system votes. Today it is a large and rapidly growing area that you can write a separate book. Primitive graphics from the novel Solzhenitsyn remained in the deep past. Voice recognition has become a part of the interdisciplinary science of speech recognition, which includes many of the physiology, psychology, linguistics, computer science and signal processing. Each of us can touch the edge of his most simple speech recognition problems, including on her smartphone feature speech to write.

Very few countries have in their forensic services departments involved in voice recognition. The reasons are two. Voice identification is still not accurate enough due to the fact that the voice of a man much It depends on its age, emotional state, health, hormonal, and a number of other factors. The second reason: most services prefer to invest money and resources into high-precision and proven field - DNA analysis and fingerprinting.

Comparison of handwriting - a delicate matter; to learn this profession, it takes a few years. Identification is carried out usually based on a "one sample against another» (one to one). Well, for example, near the body hanging in the loop found a suicide note, "In my of death I ask no one to blame. " The man himself wrote or someone did it for him? The crime lab deliver the note and handwriting samples of the victim from his home. Notebooks, shopping lists, notes. Specialist verifies the spelling corresponding letters, tilt, pressure, typical zavitochki distances.

Of course, there is the possibility of errors, for writing depends on many parameters: the state of mind man, the surface on which he writes, substrate, lighting, such as a pencil or pen, and the purpose of recording. For myself, I wrote the memo? Children instruction? Friend to bring a claim?

Ignorant people are often confused with graphology handwriting comparison. First - it is a science, and the second - a profanation, for the claim to recognition of a person's character.

Here pressure - mean aggressiveAnd letters are large density - hence, the miser, well continue in the same spirit. The saddest thing is that graphologists have managed to stand up and stand on them firmly. They have their own association, presidents, congresses, magazines and, most importantly, customers. Millions of people allow themselves to be fooled and pay for it. We have a scientific seminar coordinator is working in the department for decades I was at different periods of life. Year in 1997, I was invited to speak on it two known grafologin. Our experts from the laboratory examination of the documents they almost devoured on the stage.

About cunning lawyers and unscrupulous experts

What do you think of how much one is willing to kill another today? I have no opinion on this issue, but there are facts and you will find them if you finish reading this chapter to the end.

Two very elderly men were in Tel Aviv, a small general business. At some point there were disagreements, and Ronen Mor Avi Kogan killed shot in the head with a revolver between them. He loaded the body in the company belonging to the Fiat Fiorino red and drove to a vacant lot near the new buildings on the north of the city.

Nothing original. Even more simple way Ronen decided to get rid of the car: pay the tow truck and asked to drive away the Fiat parked in the nearby shopping center.

The day after the killing of the workers, taking out from the construction site leftovers fittings, stumbled upon the corpse. More, as the only companion on business, was questioned and detained because of his behavior during the initial conversation does not instilled confidence in the investigators. The car was found quickly and is already at the first surface inspection noticed on both rear doors traces of blood hands. Laboratory examination has established that the blood belongs to the murdered and the next - the killer. "Well, what's interesting?" - you ask. Be patient, we are just starting the story.

Ronen Mor, who was arrested on charges of murder, met with his lawyer, and together they composed a wonderful scenario:

1. Ronen Mor sick, he Alzheimer's disease and memory lapses occur.
2. Man he is elderly, he sees bad, especially at night.
3. He Avi Kogan, of course, did not.
4. The car he asked briefly two strangers, a very serious-looking men, and he agreed out of fear.
5. They returned the car to the office late evening, when the yard was already dark.
6. Just at this time, Moore came out of the bathroom, where he washed his hands, and possibly touched the wet palms of the appliance door.
7. Since Moore difficulty seeing in the dark, he had not noticed dried blood stains on the red car.
8. Referring to this spot, he left in a clean place housing the machine prints in their blood.

Everyone understood that the eight points of the fascinating history of at least the last five - not that other, as arrogant nonsense. But the lawyer went further: he ordered private Oxygen Forensic Suite, a former employee of our department, examination, which would prove, that if you touch a wet hand dried blood spots can be left on the surface of the car body clean your fingerprint blood. And this conclusion, the expert gave! However, he lost his conscience only partially, as long written conclusion just two lines:

"We can not exclude the possibility of transferring the print to dry blood stains on the clean surface with a wet hand touch the spot."

expert conducting the experiment itself is not wearied.

With this expertise in the hands of the laboratory came two prosecutors, "What shall we do? It is understood that nonsense, but judges require a formal opinion of the police, so that the write response conclusion. "

To give an expert opinion, it is necessary to carry out the experiment, and the need for this:

• 10 metal samples, from which the body is made Fiat Fiorino 1997 release, but not red and white, to achieve a better contrast of the spots on the surface. Police tossed millions, barely found the money to pay for the work of the garage, which agreed to cooperate. Garage to and so gave samples to help police, but only according to the law can not be anything from anyone to take, without paying and without getting a receipt.
• Six volunteers willing to participate in the experiment Why 10 metal samples and six volunteers? To end up the experiment results to somehow meet statistical requirements. .
• 50 milliliters of blood for each of the six participants (for reasons health people need to communicate only with his own blood).

A task that was, was simple only at first sight before us. First of all, it was to determine what a "wet hands", but this is not a scientific concept. This means that the required so-called step-experiment in which humidity should intuitively change hands from completely dry to completely wet. So they did: smeared their blood on the white metal surfaces lined into squares; samples were dried at a certain temperature fixed time; wet conditions on a finger touched employee alternately dried blood spots and bare metal portion.

And so as long as the net cell could not see anything that resembles the imprint of the finger in the blood. If this effect failed to achieve, then photographed and the original spot, and imprint. Of the many hundreds of experiments a positive effect could only register a few cases where the employee's hand was completely wet, and contact with a spot - especially dense and long. Increasing pictures spots bloodWe saw an interesting feature.

Whenever I managed to leave an imprint on the original spot of blood were visible traces of fingerprint press fingers. On the spots of dried blood on the door Fiat, this effect was not seen!

Ronen Mor was convicted by the District Court for premeditated murder and received a life sentence. At trial, his lawyer asked me two days of action for four hours, which I described to you in a hundred lines. A year after the end of the trial lawyer died of cancer, and Moore about the same time - in prison of a heart attack.

Oh, I almost forgot: the dispute between the partners came from behind to four thousand dollars.

Boris Geller - one of the leading Israeli forensic experts, an expert in fingerprinting and crime scene investigation. He generously shares his knowledge, recalls incidents from his own experience, tells the history of the development of criminology and its status in many countries, including Russia.

Geller's book "Science of crime detection" will be of interest to a wider audience - from the action-lovers detectives to those who are seriously interested in the issues of crime investigation and law enforcement.

To buy a book