SEX DETERMINATION BY FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION ABSTRACT Fingerprint recognition is an important biometric technology and its use is increasing day

by day. Fingerprint recognition is affected by several physiological factors like age, wear and tear of skin and technological factors like sensor technologies. It is built on previous research in the area of gender differences in fingerprint features. Sex determination from fingerprints in an important step in forensic anthropology in order to identify the gender of a criminal and minimize the list of suspects search. This study was conducted with an aim to establish a relationship between sex and fingerprint ridge density. The fingerprints were taken from 40 subjects (20 males and 20 females) in the age group of 18-60 years. After taking fingerprints, the ridges were counted in the upper portion of the radial border of each print for all ten fingers and mean value was calculated. It has been successful to support the hypothesis that men tend to have a statistically significant greater ridge density than women.