Note that this way of reasoning about error does not, contrary to what some
might suggest, cause the sky to fall upon forensic fingerprint identification.
All we have arrived at is that rather reasonable position that forensic
fingerprint identification is not error-free. Fingerprint examiners admit this.
But they attempt to have their cake and eat it too, by insisting on some
mythical error-free zone that is unsullied by exposed cases of error.
The real danger of attributing error to incompetence is that it works
just as well, regardless of the actual accuracy of the technique. In fact, the
tragic irony of forensic fingerprint identification is that, even though it may
be highly accurate, it adopts modes of reasoning and argumentation so
obscurantist that they would work as well even if it were highly
inaccurate. 355