In the present paper we address the fingerprint classification problem with a structural pattern recognition approach. Our main contribution is the definition of modified directional variance in orientation vector fields. The new directional variance allows us to extract regions from fingerprints that are relevant for the classification in the Henry scheme. After processing the regions of interest, the resulting structures are converted into attributed graphs. The classification is finally performed with an efficient graph edit distance algorithm. The performance of the proposed classification method is evaluated on the NIST-4 database of fingerprints.