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Chapter 1
Introduction to Forensic Science
Why Forensic Science
• Many people want to be able
to solve problems and puzzles
to be a detective
• Science has been proven to
be an important tool in
answering difficult problems
• Lastly, there has been an
explosion among high school
and college students in the
study of forensic science
Forensic Science
Forensic Science is the application of
science to those criminal and civil
laws that are enforced by police
agencies in a criminal justice system.
• Forensic science is a multidisciplinary subject,
drawing principally from chemistry and
biology, but also from physics, geology,
psychology, social science, etc.
•The term evidence implies
anything that tends to disprove
or establish a fact of the case.
History and Development
• Sherlock Holmes is a famous, brilliant,
fictional detective of the late 19th
century, created by British author and
physician Arthur Conan Doyle.
Sherlock Holmes
• Applied the principles of serology
• Fingerprinting
• Fire-arm identification
• Questioned-document examination
Timeline
• http://www.forensicdna.com/Timeline020702.pdf.
• The Forensic Science Timeline can also be found as an
appendix in our recently published book
• Principles and Practice of Forensic Science: The
Profession of Forensic Science
• http://forensicdna.com/Bookstore/index.html
• See also the Forensic Science Bibliography
• http://forensicdna.com/Bibliography.html
• This is a “work in progress”
• Please e-mail comments and suggestions
• http://forensicdna.com/~emailforms/emailtimeline.html
• This work is copyright © of Norah Rudin and Keith
Inman
Timeline
• AD 66: Nero murders his wife and presents her
head on a dish to his mistress. She identifies the
head as Nero’s wife by two discolored front teeth.
• 1149: King Richard I of England creates the job of
coroner to investigate questionable deaths.
Timeline
• 1732: Luigi Galvanio discovers that the human nervous
system transmits information electrically; this is the basis
of current lie detection equipment.
Timeline
• 1879: Alphonse Bertillon, a
French police employee,
devised the first system of
personal identification. This
science was called
anthropometry in which a
systematic procedure of taking
a series of body measurements
can be the means of
distinguishing one individual
from another. He is known as
the father of criminal
identification
Timeline
• 1892: (Sir) Francis Galton
published Fingerprints, the
first comprehensive book
on the nature of
fingerprints and their use
in solving crime.
• His work went on to
describe the basic principles
that form the present
system of identification by
fingerprints.
Timeline
• 1903: At Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, Kansas, Will
West, a new inmate, was initially confused with a resident
convict William West using anthropometry. They were
later (1905) found to be easily differentiated by their
fingerprints. For a historical clarification, please see
http://www.scafo.org/library/110105.htm
Edmond Locard Accomplishments
• 1904: Locard published L'enquete
criminelle et les methodes scientifique, in
which appears a passage that may have given
rise to the forensic precept that “Every
contact leaves a trace.”
Timeline
• 1957: The growth stages of skeletal bones are
identified by Americans Thomas Mocker and
Thomas Stewart, forming the basis of forensic
anthropology.
Timeline
• 1977: Fuseo Matsumur, a trace evidence
examiner at the Saga Prefectural Crime Laboratory
of the National Police Agency of Japan, notices his
own fingerprints developing on microscope slides
while mounting hairs from a taxi driver murder
case. He relates the information to co-worker
Masato Soba, a latent print examiner. Soba would
later that year be the first to develop latent prints
intentionally by “Superglue®” fuming.
• (1977): The FBI introduced the beginnings of its
Automated Fingerprint Identification System
(AFIS) with the first computerized scans of
fingerprints.
Timeline
• 1978: Britain’s Yorkshire Ripper case highlights
the value of computers in investigating serial
killings and leads to the development of
“psychological profiling” techniques in the
following decade.
• 1979 Bite mark evidence is key in convicting
serial killer Theodore “Ted” Bundy.
• 1984: (Sir) Alec Jeffreys developed the first DNA
profiling test. It involved detection of a
multilocus RFLP pattern. He published his
findings in Nature in 1985.
Timeline
• 1987: DNA profiling was introduced for the first time in a
U.S. criminal court. Based on RFLP analysis performed
by Lifecodes, Tommy Lee Andrews was convicted of a
series of sexual assaults in Orlando, Florida.
The United States
• FBI Laboratory is the largest forensics lab
in the world.
• FBI’s Forensic Science Research and
Training Center was opened in 1981
– This facility is dedicated to conducting
research in order to develop new and reliable
scientific techniques and methods
Reasons for Growth
•Changing judicial
requirements
•Increase in crime rates
•Advent of DNA profiling
Services of the Crime Laboratory
• Because of the independent development
of crime labs in the America, a wide
variation of the total services offered at a
forensic lab in a given community can be
different than those in another community.
– Variations in local laws
– Budgetary and staff limitations
– Different capabilities and functions of the
organization to which the lab is attached
Basic Services
• Physical Science department:
– Applies the principles and techniques of:
•Chemistry
•Physics
•Geology
– Identify and compare crime-scene evidence
•Drugs
•Glass
•Paint
•Explosives
•Soil
Basic Services
• Biology Unit:
– Biologists and biochemists
•Identification and DNA profiling of dried
bloodstains and other bodily fluids
•Comparison of hairs and fibers
•Identification and comparison of botanical
materials
– Wood
– Plants
Basic Services
• Firearms Unit:
– Examination of firearms, discharged bullets,
cartridge cases, shotgun shells, and
ammunition of all types.
– Also exam garments and other items
•To detect firearm discharge residue
•Approximate the distance from a target at which a
weapon was fired
The basic principles of firearm examination
are also applied to the comparison of
marks made by tools
Basic Services
• Document Examination Unit:
– Handwriting
– Typewriting
Used to ascertain source
and/or authenticity
– Analysis of paper and ink
– Examination of indented writings
– Obliterations
– Erasures
– Burned or charred documents
Other Units
• Photography Unit:
– Examine and record physical evidence
– Aids in the preparation of photographic
exhibits for the courtroom presentations
Optional Services : Full-Service Crime Lab
• Toxicology Unit:Examine body fluids and
organs
– Determine presence or absence of drugs or
poison
– Training of operators of the Intoxilyzer
(determines the alcoholic consumption of an
individual)
• Latent Fingerprint Unit
• Polygraph Unit
Optional Services : Full-Service Crime Lab
• Voiceprint Analysis Unit:
– Cases involving telephone threats or taperecorded messages
– Use of a sound spectrograph: an instrument
that transforms speech into visual graphic
display (voiceprint)
• Evidence-Collection Unit:
– Special trained personnel (civilian and/or
police) that collect and preserve physical
evidence from the crime scene
Other Forensic Sciences
• Forensic pathology
• Forensic anthropology
• Toxicology
• Odontology
• DNA
• Forensic botany
• Forensic Engineering
• Computer Forensics
• Impressions specialist
• Soil Analyst
• Forensic Entomologist
• Document Analysis
• Hair/Fiber/Paint
Analysis
• Ballistics
• Serology
• Trace Evidence
Specialist
• Arson/Explosives
Expert
• Fingerprints
• Forensic Vet