According to Webster's Dictionary, the definition of the word "forensics- is "the .
use of science and technology to investigate and establish facts in criminal or civil courts .
of law."" The use of forensics has been used to aid the investigations of crimes for over a .
century. Although investigating crime scenes is not exactly the same as it used to be in .
the beginning, investigators still use the basics but have just added the help of science to .
more accurately prove a suspect. Forensic science is a valuable aid in assisting both the .
police and the courts in bringing the accused to justice by evidence such as fingerprints, .
DNA, firearms, shoeprints, forensic psychiatry, and polygraph testing. .
In around1750 B.C, people in Babylon used finger prints to sign their identity on clay tablets. The first time ink prints were used in China around the year 220, fingerprints became a forgotten item. This all changed in the late 1850s when Sir William Herschel demanded laborers to sign contracts with fingerprints. Eventually as year went by fingerprints became known as unique to everyone and became more used during crime scene investigation in the early 1900s. Fingerprints are made of ridges on the upper skin on hands and feet of all people and some animals. These ridges make lines of different sizes and forms. They are "permanent- in that they are formed in the fetal stage and remain the same throughout lifetime, barring disfiguration by scarring, until sometime after death when decomposition sets in. Fingerprints do change, but the changes can be explained (flexibility from the skin, growing, a dirty finger, scarring, a wound, or a disease of the skin). They are "unique- in that no two fingerprints are the same or are identical in their ridge characteristic arrangement. Many people ask if identical twins have the same prints, the answer is no. Although they have the same DNA they finger prints are completely different.