Zeitschrift für forensische Forschung

Variations in Morphological Patterns of Lip Prints as Evidence in Racial and Sexual Discrimination

Abstract

Naagla F Mahmoud*, Mostafa M Afify, Reham N Elbendary and Dina A Shokry

Introduction: The genetic heterogeneity among Different populations has been a great challenge in establishing ethnicity. The variation of lip print patterns in an ethnic population may be a unique feature of that population and therefore has an important role in forensic practice and criminal investigations.

Aim: The aim of the study was to ascertain whether there are any differences in the distribution of lip print pattern among different populations of Egyptian, Malaysian and Sudanese students.

Method: In this descriptive study, one hundred-Fifty Two lip prints (belonging to three different ethnic groups) were collected and recognized based on the sorting of Suzuki and Tsuchihashi’s. Collected Data was statistically analysed.

Results: The result showed that Type I was the prevalent pattern among Egyptian males and females (48% and 41.4%). Type III showed high frequency in Malaysian female and males (34.0% and 30%). As regard Sudanese population Type I was the predominant pattern among males and females (37.9% and 38.0%). Chi square (χ2) test was performed among lip print patterns of the studied populations, There was a statistically significant difference in lip print pattern Type I between Egyptian and Malaysian females And between Malaysian and Sudanese females. Lip print Type III and Type VI showed significant difference between Malaysian and Sudanese females. There was significant statistical difference among Egyptian and Malaysian males as regards distribution of lip print pattern Type I and Type VI.

Conclusion: Lip print patterns distribution showed Potential difference among the different population groups, this could help to make the search gap narrower in forensic purposes and criminal investigations.