Forensic Science: History

Criminalistics

The scientific study and evaluation of physical evidence in the commission of crimes.
The science dealing with the detection of crime and the apprehension of criminals.
Legal Dictionary- application of scientific techniques in collecting and analyzing physical evidence in criminal cases.

Criminalistics is one sub division of Forensic Science. The terms and forensic disciplines vary such as medicine, toxicology, anthropology, entomology, engineering, odontology and of course criminalistics.

It is very difficult to provide an exact definition of criminalistics, or the extent of its applications, as it varies from one location to another.

*ORIGIN*

It is very difficult to define a clear origin of criminalistics... The term comes from the German word kriminalistik, invented by Australian Criminalist Hans Gross (1847-1915). Even though the Field of criminalistics started long before Gross' time, the first serious well-documented application of scientific principles to a legal purpose started in the middle Nineteenth Century.

The famous novel Sherlock Holmes, invented by Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle, was possibly the first fictional founder of criminalistics. The real recognition of criminalistics as of science itself can be contributed to Hans Gross who published the book Handbuch Fur Untersuchungsrichter Als System Der Kriminalistiks in 1899. The development of anthropology by the French anthropologist Alphone Bertillon (1853-1914) and also fingerprint analysis in the same period by the Scottish scientist Henry Favids (1843-1911) was started. The English scientist Francis Galton(1822-1911), and English Commissioner Sir. Edward Henry (1850-1931), also made a huge impact to the reinforcements of criminalistics.The progress made in forensic photography by Swiss criminalist Rodolpe Archibald Reiss (1875-1929) also made a huge impact, but most of all the beginning era of modern CSI is contributed to Criminalist Edmond Locar (1877-1966) and his helper Harry Soderman (1902-1956). In the U.S. the work of American Criminalist Paul Kirk (1902-1970) reinforced the predominate position of Criminalistics in Forensic Science.

"Criminalistics." World of Forensic Science. Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. Gale Cengage, 2006. eNotes.com. 2006. 20 Oct, 2010 <http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/criminalistics>

*Innovators*

Photo not available	Mattieu Orfila -- is considered the Father of Forensic Toxicology. He published the first scientific treatise on the detection of poisons and their effects on animals.
	Alphonse Bertillon -- developed the science of anthropology (a systematic procedure of taking body measurements as a mean of distinguishing one individual to another) "Father of Criminal Identification"
	Francis Galot -- made the first definitive study of fingerprints and developed a methodology of classifying them.
PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE	Leone Lattes -- developed a method of determining the blood group of a dry bloodstain.
	Karl Landsteiner -- discovered the four basic blood types A, B, O, and AB.
Photo not available	Calvin Goddard -- figured out how to compare a bullet fired from a weapon. "firearms examiner"
	Walter C. McCrone -- became the worlds preeminent microscopist, he promoted his life to the application of the polarized light microscope to problem solving.
	Edmond Locard -- founded the Exchange Theory, "with contact between two items, there will be and exchange." Meaning - the perpetrator of a crime comes into contact with the scene so the perpetrator will both bring something into the scene and leave with something from the scene.

*The Invention of Police*

There really is no way to investigate crimes without police to do so.

In the western culture, the concept of a police paid by the government was developed by French legal scholars and proactitioners in the 17th Century and early 18th Century. The German Polizeiwissenschaft (science of police) was also an important theoretical formulation of police.

The first police force in the modern age was created by the government of king Louis XIV in 1667 to police the city of Paris which was the largest and considered the most dangerous European city.The royal edict registered by the Parlament of Paris on March 15, 1667 created the office of "lieutenant general of police" who was to be the new head of the Paris police force. They defined police as the task of "ensuring the peace and quiet of the public and of private individuals purging the city of what may cause disturbances, procuring abundances and to have each and everyone live according to their station and their duties."

Gabriel Nicolas De La Reynie was the head of the office and had 44 police commissioners under his authority. In 1707 the commissioners were joined with police inspectors. The city of a Paris was divided into 16 districts all policed by the 44 commissioners, each were assigned to a district and supported in their districts by clerks and a growing bureaucracy. The scheme of Paris's police force was then extended to the rest of France by a royal edict of October 1699, resulting in the creation of lieutenant generals in all large French cities and towns.

However the early conceptualization of police is quite different from today's police forces, in charge of maintaining order and arresting criminals. Police had both and economical and social duty.

The development of modern police was contemporary to the formation of the state, later defined by sociologist Max Weber "the monopoly" on the legitimate use of physical force primarily exerted by police and the military. Which is illegal.

The word police was borrowed from French into English in the Eighteenth Century. In the U.S. the first organized police services was established in Boston in 1835, New York in 1844, and Philadelphia in 1854.

*FBI History Not Always Legal*

1908-- President Theodore Roosevelt established the FBI.

When the Bureau was first established, therewere few federal crimes. The Bureau of Investigations primarily investigated, law violations involving national banking,bankruptcy, naturalization, antitrust, peonage, and land fraud. Since the early bureau provided no formal training, previous experience, or a background in the law was considered desireable.

The first expansion in bureau jurisdiction came in June 1910 when the Mann "White Slave" act was passed, making it a crime to transport women over state lines for immoral purposes. Finch became commissioner of the White Slavery Act violation in 1912, and former special examiner A. Bruce Bielaski, became the New Bureau of Investigations Chief. Within the next few years, the number of special agents grew to more than three hundred, and were complemented by another three hundred support employees. Field offices existed from the bureaus inception. Each field was controlled by a special agent. Most of the offices were located in major cities. However, several were located near the Mexican border where they concentrated on smuggling, neutrality violations, and intelligence collection, often in connection with the Mexican Revolution.

Within the April 1917 entry of the U.S. into WWI, the bureau's work was increased even more. As a result of the war the bureau acquired responsibility for the espionage, selective service, and sabotage acts. During these years special agents with general investigative experience and facility in certain languages augmented the bureau.

William J. Flynn, former head of the Secret Service, became director of the Bureau of Investigations in July 1919 and was first to use the title. With the return of the country to "normalcy" under President Warren G. Harding in 1921, the Bureau of Investigations returned to it's pre-war role of fighting the few federal crimes.

The FBI Crime Laboratory is one of the largest and most comprehensive forensic laboratories in the world.

*DNA History*

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Alex Jeffreys, was the man who invented DNA fingerprinting. He put in hours of studying human inherited variations which starts from differences in genes. He hunted for sections of DNA that are highly variable from individual to individual as he wanted to find out how people vary in their DNA sequences. Jeffreys and his colleagues were one of the first groups anywhere in the world to be able to spot those kinds of variations.

DNA analysis has revolutionized Forensic Science and the ability of law enforcement to match a perpetrator with a crime scene. Thousands of cases have been closed and innocent suspects freed, with guilty ones punished because of the power of a "silent" biological witness at the crime scene. A rapist in Florida was the first person to be convicted through the use of DNA evidence.

DNA is the most reliable resource!!

*Advances*

1854-- San Francisco had the earliest use of systematic photography for criminal identification
1878-- The telephone comes into use in the police precinct
1888-- Chicago was the first city to use the Bertillion System of identification in the U.S.
1901-- Scotlands department adopts a fingerprinting classification system devise by Sir. Edward Richard Henry
1923-- The use of the teletype is adopted by Pennsylvania State Police
1930-- The present day polygraph is developed for the use in police stations
1975-- Rockwell International install the first finger print reader in the FBI
1990-- The departments of New York, Chicago, and elsewhere use sophisticated computer programs to analyze crime patterns
Microscopes are used in evidence research-- The use of lens or a combination of lenses to magnify and resolve fine details of an object