Reading Between the Ridges: Gender Identification from Dermatoglyphics in Northern India: An Observational Study

Gender determination is an important part of fingerprint identification research, with many applications in several scientific domains. This skill extends beyond forensic science to include other disciplines such as human biology and anthropology, altogether aiding in studying variable yet unique identifiable qualities among populations and civilisations. Thereby, this present study aims to seeks to contribute to the broader field of fingerprint analysis and its application in gender determination.Fingerprints from 100 university students (50 males and 50 females) aged 18–25 years were analysed. Fingerprints were obtained using an inkpad, which were then tallied for epidermal ridges drawn inside the bisected lines drawn and calibrated on the upper right end of the fingerprint on a translucent film and the ridge density and characteristics were calculated digitally using Adobe Photoshop CS5.Findings indicate that females tend to have slightly higher minimum and maximum ridge densities compared to males in both hands. However, the mean ridge densities for males and females are relatively similar, with females showing a marginally higher mean ridge density in both the right and left hands. The frequency of ulnar loop was found in higher in females as compared to males, with minute characteristics that were of ridge breaks, although of little or insignificant difference between both genders.The data highlights minor but consistent differences in fingerprint ridge density between genders, supporting the potential for using ridge density as a biometric marker for gender determination. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to quantitatively assess fingerprint ridge density as well as ridge characteristics specifically in the middle finger among the young adult population in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, thereby providing region-specific forensic biometric data for gender differentiation. Further studies with increased sample size and utilising comparison between more than one finger of the same hand for both the density as well as the characteristics of the ridges would be of immense help in providing consistent and robust results.