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Forensic Science
History and Development of Forensic Science
Forensic science is the application of science to criminal
and civil laws that are enforce by police agencies in a
criminal justice system.
Forensic science began with those individuals who
developed the principles and techniques necessary to
identify or compare physical evidence, and with those
who recognized the necessity of merging of those
principles into a coherent discipline that practically
applied to the criminal justice system.
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1.
Many believe that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
Doyle, through
his fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, popularized
scientific crime detection methods. It was Holmes
who first applied the principles of serology the study
of blood, fingerprinting, firearm identification, and
document examination long before their value was
first discovered and implemented by real life criminal
investigators.
The following are some pioneers who made early
contributions to formulating the disciplines that
now constitute forensic science:
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2. Mathieu Orfila
“Father of Modern Toxicology”
Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila
(April 24, 1787 - March 12, 1853)
was a French toxicologist and chemist.
Publications:
Trait des poisons or Toxicologie generate (1813)*
Elements de chimie medicate (1817)
Leons de médecine legate (1823)
Trait des exhumations juridiques (1830)
Recherches sur lempoisonnement par lacide arsenieux (1841)
Orfila cont’d
His fame rests mainly on the firstnamed work,
published when he was only in his twentyseventh year. It is a vast mine of experimental
observation on the symptoms of poisoning of all
kinds, on the appearances which poisons leave
in the dead body, on their physiological action,
and on the means of detecting them.
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3. Alphonse Bertillon
“Father of Criminal Identification”
Alphonse Bertillon was a French policeman who
believed that people could be physically identified to a
certainty by conducting a series of measurements. His
theory was that by using 11 different measurements
from a person's body, he could accurately establish their
identity at a later date. This system of identifcation is
known as Anthropometry. Today, we use photographs
and fingerprints as the standard for offender
identification (booking).
Alphonse Bertillon
“Father
of Criminal
Identification”.
Developed a
system of
identification called
anthropometry.
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The areas of measurement were chosen
randomly. After discarding some
measurements, Bertillon decided to use the
breadth of the outstretched arms, head length
and width, left foot length, left little finger
length, trunk height, body height, width and
length of the right ear, length of the left
forearm, and the length of the left foot.
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Bertillon also included fingerprints as part his
new system which he called "anthropometrics".
Bertillon's system became popular with law
enforcement during the 1880s. Offenders were
measured, photographed and fingerprinted
during their booking process. However, in 1903
something occurred which caused law
enforcement to discard Bertillon's system of
identification.
A Bertillon "booking" Card
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Bertillon Fingerprint Card
What happened to Bertillon in 1903?
In 1903, a prisoner by the name Will West was
sentenced to incarceration at the United States
Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. During his
inprocessing, the records clerk obtained Will
West's Bertillon measurements and photograph.
Will West denied ever being incarcerated at the
facility.
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Will West's Bertillon Measurements
178.5; 187.0; 91.2; 19.7;
15.8; 14.8; 6.6; 28.2;
12.3; 9.7
The records clerk, having referenced his
Bertillon measurements into the system,
retrieved the Bertillon card for a William West.
Will West denied that the William West card was
his. Subsequent investigation disclosed that
William West had previously been incarcerated
in the facility until September 9, 1901. By
examining the photographs, one can see the
failure of the Bertillon system.
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Compare the Bertillon measurements in particular,
keeping in mind the various factors that would affect
the measurements. This failure strengthened the science
of fingerprints as the normally accepted method of
personal identification. The authorities compared their
fingerprints and determined that Will West was not the
previously recorded William West. Recent opinions
suggest that Will and William West were related,
therefore the closeness in measurements and
appearance. As a result of this incident, Bertillon's
"anthropometric" identification system was quickly
discarded in favor of fingerprints.
Will West
William West
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4. Frances Galton
Frances Galton undertook
the first definitive study of
fingerprints as a method of
identification. Developed a
methodology of classifying
them in 1892. His work described the basic
principles that formed the present system of
identification by fingerprints.
Francis Galton
Developed a method of classification for finger
prints.
Publication: “Finger Prints” – a statistical proof
of uniqueness of finger prints
Wrote the basic principles of the present system
of identification by finger print analysis.
Cousin to Charles Darwin
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5. Leone Lattes
Furthered the work of Dr Karl Landersteiner
Leone Lattes discovered that blood can be
grouped into different categories. Since 1915,
blood types have been recognized as A, B, AB,
and O.
Developed a test to type dried blood that is used
for criminal investigations.
Today, his procedure is utilized often by
forensic scientists.
6. Calvin Goddard
Bullistics – chemical analysis to tell whether a
gun has been fired or not.
Use of a microscope to determine if a the tool
marks on a fired bullet matches a specific gun.
Established the comparison microscope as an
indispensible tool of the fire arms examiner.
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7. Albert S. Osborn
Fundamental Principles of Document
Examination.
Book: Questioned Documents (still used today)
Handwriting analysis
Document examinantion
Paper examination
8. Walter C. McCrone
Microscope techniques
McCrone Research Institute – Chicago IL
World renown for microscope and microscope
trace evidence detection.
Did analysis on the “Shroud of Turin”.
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9. Hans Gross
Wrote the first treatise on – Application of
Science Disciplines to the Field of Criminal
Investigation.
Book – Criminal Investigation: use of
microscope, chemistry, mineralogy, zoology,
botany, and anthropometry.
Forensic Journal – to report new and improved
methods of scientific crime detection.
10. Dr. Edmond Locard
Established the first workable
crime lab. Founder and Director
of the Institute of Criminalistics
at the University of Lyons.
International Center for the study
and research in forensic science.
Wrote: Locards Exchange Principle
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Locards Exchange Principle
States
and believes that every criminal can
be connected to a crime scene by dust
particles carried to the crime scene, transfer
occurs whenever a criminal comes into
contact with objects or a person.
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