Although Langenburg [23] and Schiffer and Champod [24] show
that these inconsistencies decrease with training and experience,1
they also make the point that ‘‘quite important variations do
subsist between examiners’’ ([24] p. 119). All the studies
consistently show that there is variability in the number of
minutiae observed in the analysis stage, and that these inconsistencies
are attenuated but not eliminated, during the initial
training and experience in fingerprint examination. Furthermore,
as reported by Schiffer and Champod [24], even in the relatively
robust stage of analysis ‘‘a clear subjective element persists’’. A
further study [25] suggests that the combined presence of
contextual pressure and availability of the target comparison
print influences the evaluation stage (following the analysis and
comparison), but this effect varies among different marks.