Since the early days of police work, police and judges alike have struggled with how to prove that the suspected perpetrator committed the crime in question, or how to prove a suspect's innocence.

As early as the 7th century in China and the 8th century in Japan a thumbprint could be used as a signature on legal documents. Even though there was some awareness of the unique qualities of fingerprints in Europe as early as the 17th century, it wasn't until the mid 1800s that an East India Company employee began to use handprints as a form of signature in India. In the 1880s, Sir Francis Galton, anthropologist and cousin of Charles Darwin, began working on using fingerprints as a means of identification. In 1892, he published Fingerprints, in which he theorized that fingerprints were unique and unchanging and could be used as a means of identification.

In the United Stated, in 1882 Gilbert Thompson, a geologist working the New Mexico, used his own fingerprints on documents to prevent forgery.

In 1892, Argentine detective Juan Vucetich solved the first criminal case using fingerprint matching. By 1912, fingerprinting had become the standard in South America. By then, most European countries had adopted fingerprint as system of identification.

In the United States, by 1903 the New York State Prison System began to use fingerprint, followed by the U.S. Army in 1905 and the Navy in 1906. In 1908, the Library Bureau Company of Chicago designed the basic fingerprint form still used today. Fingerprinting and identification are still key to solving criminal cases today even as new technological advances, such as DNA testing, continue to grow.