History of Criminal Identification
In The Beginning
• Only had people’s names
• Then went to photographs
and names
• What was the issue
with this process?
Alphonse Bertillion
• Police Officer in France and biometrics
researcher (1853-1914)
• His system for identification was to take
measurements of the persons entire body.
• Would also list scars etc.
Dreyfus Affair
• Alphonse testifies as handwriting expert to
condemn Dreyfus. Dreyfus gets life in Prison
on Devil’s Island
• This is eventually overturned
• Bertillion ends with will West
Finger Prints
• Finger Prints replace Bertillon
• After Will West Case in the United States
• No finger prints are identical
• Not even identical twins
DNA
• Use of DNA has provided a safeguard against
wrongful conviction
• At the same time it has convicted many
criminals and solved countless cold cases.
Crime Patterns
• Day/Season/Climate
• Crime rises later in day as kids get out of
school.
• Climate/Season
– More overall crimes are committed in the warmer
months.
• Teenagers out of school
• People are outside
• Houses are left vacant
Exceptions
• Murder and Robbery
– Mostly occur during December and January
• Also more robbery in the beginning of the
Month.
– Welfare and social security checks are arrive
• More drinking partying and gambling
Temperature
• Some criminologists believe that as
temperature goes up so does the crime rate.
• Domestic assault goes up in relation to heat.
• Stress and tension caused by temperature
cause us to get violent.
– People are also outside and with others more
Regionally
• Northeast has the lowest violent crime rate
• South and West come in the highest with the
South leading the way.
• Why is this?
Firearms
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Used in 20% of robberies
10% of assaults
5% of rapes
67% of all murders
Have no racial or ethnic correlation
Some criminologists believe that the proliferation
of handguns is why we have such a violent
society.
• Some believe it to be a deterrent.
Social Class/ SES and Crime
• Believed that crime in the inner city is high because people
have nothing and resort to crime to get what they need.
– Prison populations seem to attest to that fact
• Crimes include, robberies, muggings, car theft, drug dealing etc.
Called instrumental crimes
• Expressive crimes include rape/assault
• May be because Police focus their time and effort in lower
income areas
• Evidence suggests that more serious crimes happen at a
higher rate in lower income areas
• Middle class kids commit more nuisance crimes overall.
How do we know these things?
• There are various ways of collecting data
– UCR or Uniform Crime Report
• FBI report that gathers information from police
departments across the country
– Problems with this are numerous
• Not all departments report crime the same way
• Only 50% of crime is reported overall
NIBRS
• This is the National Incident Based Reporting
System
– This does not report the crimes reported by police
– This system reports the crimes to which police
responded
What could the problem be with this system?
Victimization Studies
• Reports of crimes from the victims themselves
– If someone got raped/mugged/robbed/etc the
report is from the victims own words
What could the problem be with this report?
Self Report Crimes
• The criminals themselves report the crimes
– They can give the best description of what
happened.
What do you think just might possibly, maybe, could
be the problem with this report?
Prison systems in Crisis?
• http://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/
Prisons
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Nationally, there are approximately 1.3
million prison inmates
About 6% of the population being women.
For every 100,000 white males, 461 are
imprisoned
While for every 100,000 black males, 3,250
are imprisoned
More Prison Stats
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The rate of imprisonment for black males
has dramatically increased over the past
ten years
While the rate for white males has grown
significantly less.
Why are people locked up?
State Prison
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The increase in the imprisonment of drug
offenders accounts for 75% of the increase in
prison populations.
Most people sentenced to state prisons have
been convicted of violent crimes (46%).
Property crimes account for about 24%.
Drug crimes account for the remaining 30%
of inmates.
Federal Prisons
• Federal crimes offer a different picture with
60% of the inmates being incarcerated for
drug crimes.
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Prison inmates generally have low formal
education or vocational skills and a
disadvantaged background.
• Also, most adult inmates have served
some time in juvenile correctional
facilities
Prison Cost
• NYC paid $167,731 to feed, house and guard each inmate.
• NYC had 12,287 inmates for a total cost of $2,060,910,797.
• NY State spent $60,000 per inmate
• National Average was $31,286
• $39 Billion Dollars
• Cost for education per student $11,000
Costs for Rehabilitation