Warm UP
Can you solve this puzzle?
There was nothing Leon, the driver, could do about the
impending crash of the car he was driving. Leon knew
the car would be completely demolished in the crash.
After the crash Leon didn’t have a scratch on him. How
can that be?
What is forensic science?
Application of science to law
Applies knowledge and technology of
science to the definition and
enforcement of laws
Enforced by police agencies in the
criminal justice system
Diversity of professions within
the forensic science
Criminalistics
Engineering
Science
General
Jurisprudence
Odontology
Pathology/Biology
Physical
Anthropology
Psychiatry and
behavioral science
Questioned
Documents
Toxicology
Also divisions such as
Fingerprint examination
Firearm and tool mark examination
Computer and digital data analysis
Photography
=
History and Development of
Forensic Science
Earliest Record 3rd century China
Yi Yu Ji “A collection of criminal cases”
Woman murdered her husband and burned
the body and claimed accidental fire
Coroner noticed no ashes in mouth of
deceased and performed experiment on pigs
Chinese were first to recognize the potential
of fingerprints as means of identification
Limited knowledege of
anatomy and pathology
hindered the growth of
forensics until the late 17th
century and early 18th
century
Initial Scientific advances
1798 “A treatise on Forensic
medicine and Public Health”
Written by french physician FrancoisEmanual Fodere
Initial scientific advances
1775 Sweedish Chemist Carl William
Scheele developed first successful
test in detecting arsenic poisoning in
corpses
1806 German chemist Valatin Ross
developed more precise method of
detection in stomach lining of victims
Father of Forensic Toxicology
Spaniard MATHIEU ORFILA
1814 published the first scientific
treatise on the detection of poisons and
their effects on animals
Forensic toxicology was born
Advances through the mid
1800’s
1828 William Nichol- invented the
polarizing microscope
1839 Henry-Louis Bayard-first
procedures for microdetection of
hemoglobin/blood
Advances through the mid
1800’s
1863 First presumptive test for blood
TOXICOLOGY EVIDENCE FIRST USED
IN TRIAL IN 1839
Scottish chemist named James Marsh testified
presence of arsenic in victim
1850’s-60’s Photography became an
integral part of recording crime scenes
Late Nineteenth Century
Progress
1879 French scientist Alphonse
Bertillon responsible for
advancements in anthropology and
morphology (study of structure of
living organisms)
Bertillon’s System
“Anthropometry”
systematic procedure involved taking
body measurements as means of
identifying one individual from
another
Father of Criminal Identification
Bertillon’s Method
Used for over two
decades as a source of
identification
Replaced by
fingerprinting in the
early 1900’s
Francis Henry Galton
Father of Fingerprinting
First definitive study of fingerprinting
and methodology for classifying and filing
1892 published book “ Finger Prints”
First statistical proof supporting
uniqueness of method of identification
Hans Gross
1893 Public processor and judge in
Graz, Austria published “Criminal
Investigation”
This book detailed the assistance that
investigators could expect from fields of
microscopy, chemistry, physics,
mineralogy, zoology, botany,
anthropometry, and fingerprinting
Hans Gross
Introduced the first forensic journal
A journal compiles improved methods of
science in a field
This journal is still published and
updated to this date
Make Believe helped this field
grow!
Sherlock Holmes was a fictional
character created by Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle
Tales where about Dr. John Watson
who was Sherlock Holmes partner and
biographer and together they solved
criminal mysteries
Make Believe helped this field
grow!
This series encompassed fields like:
Serology- study of blood and bodily fluid
Fingerprinting
Firearms identification
Questioned Document examination
Twentieth century
Breakthroughs
1901 Dr. Karl
Landsteiner discovered blood types
(A, B, AB, O)
1915 Dr. Leone Lattes devised a
simple test for determining blood
types from dried blood
Albert S. Osborn
1910 Developed fundamental
principles of document examination
“Questioned Documents”
Edmond Locard
1910 persuaded Lyon’s police
department to give him 2 attic rooms
and 2 assistants to start a police
laboratory
Only equipment was a microscope and
spectrometer
Edmond Locard
His enthusiasm overcame his technical and
monetary deficiencies
His research and accomplishments became
known though the world
Became founder and director of Institute
of Criminalistics at the University of
Lyons
International center for study and
research in forensic science
Locard’s Exchange Principle
When two objects come into contact
with each other a cross transfer of
material occurs
Locard
He strongly believed that every
criminal can be linked to a crime by
dust particles carried from the crime
scene
Reinforced by a series of successful
well publicized cases
Other notable scientists
Dr. Walter McCrone- world’s
preeminent microscopist
Army Colonel Calvin Goddard- refined
techniques of firearm examination by
using a comparison microscope
Modern Scientific Advances
Computer Technology
Chromatography
Spectrophotometry
Electrophoresis
DNA typing
Sir Alec Jeffreys
Developed first DNA profiling test in
1984
Has revolutionized the practice of
fornsic science
Computers
Have revolutionized data bases
cutting down on the time required to
find matches and analyze data
What should I know at this
point?
Definition of forensic science
Who developed anthrpometry and what it
is
Scientists what they contributed=
Bertillon, Galton, Lattes, Goddard, Orfila,
Jeffrey, Osborn, and Locard
Locard’s exchange principle
Lab Reports
Title
Objective
Materials
Procedure
Observations
Data table/graphs
Sample calc
conclusions
conversions
Volume
16 oz = 1pt
2 pints = 1 quart
4 quarts = 1 gal
Speed
Miles to hours