| Tittel: | Tracking fingerprints in residential burglary investigations in Denmark | | Ansvar: | Henrik Munkholm Wulff, Eva Ljungkvist og Matt Bland | | Forfatter: | Wulff, Henrik Munkholm  / Ljungkvist, Eva / Bland, Matt | | Materialtype: | Artikkel - elektronisk | | Signatur: | Nordic Journal of Criminology | | Utgitt: | Oslo : Universitetsforlaget, 2025 | | Omfang: | S. 1-14 | | ISBN/ISSN: | 2578-9821 | | Serie: | Nordic Journal of Criminology ; 1/Volume 27 | | Emneord: | Vitenskapelig publikasjon | | Geografiske emneord: | Danmark | | Note: | Open access. Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) | | Innhold: | Abstract
Denmark has the highest burglary rate per capita in Europe but burglary is one of its least solved crime types. Practitioners and scholars have made the case for the collection of fingerprint evidence for decades. Fingerprint evidence can lead to the identification of suspects and contribute to the case for prosecutions. In this study we explore how widely used this traditional investigative technique is in Danish burglaries and what differences there are in prosecution rates when fingerprints lead to the identification of suspects compared to when they do not. We analysed all residential burglaries in Denmark in 2019. Of almost 24,000 cases, fingerprints were obtained in just 708. When submitted for examination at the Danish National Forensic Services, only 530 prints passed the initial screening process containing the sufficient quality and details required to identify an individual. The likelihood of conviction was significantly increased if a suspect was identified through fingerprints, which begs the critical question of why fingerprint evidence is not collected more often by Danish Police. Our findings provide a new perspective for theoretical analyses of fingerprint evidence, emphasising the importance of organisational efficacy. There are also numerous practical implications, not just for Danish Police but for any law enforcement agency seeking to improve its burglary investigation outcomes. We discuss the potential implications for more forensic training, the time allocated to crime scene examination, and the priorities for future research in this area.
Keywords: crime detection, evidence based policing, fingerprints, forensics, residential burglary | | Del av verk: | Nordic Journal of Criminology Volume 27 no 1 |
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