Their use as evidence has been challenged by academics, judges and the
media. There are no uniform standards for point-counting methods, and
academics have argued that the error rate in matching fingerprints has
not been adequately studied and that fingerprint evidence has no secure
statistical foundation. Research has been conducted into whether experts
can objectively focus on feature information in fingerprints without
being misled by extraneous information, such as context.
There's a common belief that fingerprint analysis is objective and reliable, but there's a great deal of subjectivity involved. Additionally, there have been several convictions involving fingerprints as evidence which were eventually overturned.
While they may still be useful, they have an image of infallibility that doesn't line up with reality.
