Based on their strictly individual and immutable characters, fingerprints are indispensable tool for
person’s identification. In forensic science, digital pattern families constitute the first level of comparison
between an incriminated digital trace and a suspect fingerprint. Until now in the literature, there was no data on
the distribution of fingerprints families in Burkina Faso. So, the present study was a descriptive study whose
purpose was to provide information on fingerprint patterns distribution in 1500 citizens in Burkina Faso. The
results showed that Loops were the most represented with 75.44 % followed by Whorls (17.31%) and Arches
(7.23%). These results corroborate with what was previously established and showed that Loops are actually the
most predominant fingerprints forms. The Pattern index intensity was higher in males (5.62) than in females
(5.53). But Furuhata’s Index was higher in females (29.83) than in males (19.72). The same trend was obtained
with Dankmeijer’s Index which was higher in females (48.26) than in males (30.19). The present study will have
to be deepened by subsequent studies to enrich the scientific literature with more data on fingerprints in Burkina
Faso.
Keywords: Fingerprints, patterns, loops, whorls, arches, identification, pattern indices.

Fingerprints, pattern distribution, forensic science, population study, Burkina Faso