Latent Lip Print
Definition
A lip print deposited without lipstick or coloured product, invisible to the eye and requiring chemical or physical development before comparison. Composed of sebaceous secretion, sweat, and epithelial cells.
- Discipline
- Cheiloscopy
- Composition
- Sebaceous secretion, sweat, epithelial cells
- Visibility
- Invisible without development
- Contrast with
- Visible lipstick-coloured lip prints
Common questions
How is a latent lip print developed for examination?+
Physical methods such as fingerprint powder dusting or chemical methods that react with the sebaceous and amino acid content of the secretion can be used, similar in principle to latent fingerprint development, since the deposit is compositionally comparable.
Can a latent lip print yield DNA as well as pattern evidence?+
Yes, the epithelial cells and secretions in the deposit can be swabbed for DNA profiling alongside the groove pattern comparison, giving two independent lines of evidence from the same latent deposit.
Related terms
- Cheiloscopy
- Study of lip prints (Greek cheilos, lip; skopein, to examine). The furrow system on human lips was first described by anthropologist R....
- Concordance Criterion
- The minimum degree of pattern agreement required before an examiner can report a positive identification. For lip prints, no consensus criterion exists,...
- Lip Print Persistence
- The duration over which a deposited lip print remains retrievable from a surface. Affected by surface material, environmental conditions, handling of the...
- Suzuki-Tsuchihashi Classification
- The 1970 system that divides lip groove patterns into five main types (I, I', II, III, IV, V) based on groove direction,...
- Vermilion Border
- The reddened transition zone between the facial skin and the labial mucosa. It is covered by a thin, partly transparent mucosa that...