History of Forensics

CHS

Define Forensics

Forensics is the application of science to law.

Earliest record of applying forensics to solve a crime

Yi Yu Ji “A collection of criminal cases”– Chinese woman suspected of murder– Her husband was found dead after a fire broke

out. – Coroner solved the case by

Noticing that there was no ashes in the husbands mouth

He decided to experiment by burning 2 pigs– One alive one dead– Dead pig - no ashes in mouth – Live pig- ashes in mouth

Earliest record of applying entomology to solve a crime

The Chinese lawyer and death investigator Sung Tzu Described a murder.

A stabbing took place near a rice field.The day after the murder the investigator had all the workers put out their sickles. Small unseen traces of blood attracted Blowflies to only one sickle

Mathieu Orfila

the father of forensic toxicology.

He published: A General System of Toxicology,

or, a Treatise on Poisons, Drawn from the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms, Considered as to their Relations with Physiology, Pathology and Medical Jurisprudence

Devised the first scientific system of personal identification in 1879.

Alphonse Bertillion

Francis Galton

Conducted the first definitive study of fingerprints and their classification

He wrote about the technique identifying common pattern in fingerprints and devising a classification system that survives to this day.

The method of identifying criminals by their fingerprints had been introduced in the 1860s by Sir William James Herschel in India

Leone Lattes

Developed a procedure to determine blood type from dried bloodstains.

                                                                                                

Calvin Goddard

Used a comparison microscope to determine if a particular gun fired a bullet.

Evidence Processing in the St Valentine’s Day Massacre in

ChicagoThe shooters had left behind 70

empty 45 caliber cartridge casings and the weapons that fired them were identified by Calvin Goddard as .45-caliber Thomson submachine guns.

By differentiating two distinct sets of ejector marks on the cartridge case, Goddard determined that two weapons had fired the seventy shells. Fifty cartridges had been fired from one Thompson and twenty from the other

LOOK AWAY

Albert Osborn

Developed the fundamental principles of document examination.

Handwriting  ”Evidence" in the Lindbergh Case 

Walter McCrone

Utilized microscopy and other analytical methodologies to examine evidence.

Found titanium in paint, proving the Vinland map a forgeryVinland map

Hans Gross

Wrote the first treatise describing the application of scientific principles to the field of criminal investigation.

Father of modern criminalistics.

Edmond Locard

Incorporated Gross’ principles within a workable crime laboratory.

Exchange Principle - Trace evidence is based on Locard’s Exchange Principle which contends that every contact, no matter how slight, will leave a trace. The trace is normally caused by objects or substances contacting one another, and leaving a minute sample on the contact surfaces.

References

Criminalistics, Saferstein, Criminalistics, Saferstein, 9th edition, 2007 http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/orfila-mathieu-joseph-bonaventure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/15/1502303.pdf http://crime-scene-processing.suite101.com/article.cfm/lockards_exchange_principle http://forensicscience.suite101.com/article.cfm/st_valentines_day_massacre#ixzz0xuqc1LRV

Pictures

Slide 2– http://to55er.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/– http://shadows-canisters.tripod.com/id14.html

Slide 3– http://www.blackenedmoon.com/IMAGES/FireAnimation.gif

Slide 4– http://images.absoluteastronomy.com/images/encyclopediaimages/m/ma/mathieu_joseph_bonaventure_orfila.jpg

Slide 5– Criminalistics, Saferstein, Criminalistics, Saferstein, 9th edition, 2007

Slide 6– http://www.barcode.ro/tutorials/biometrics/fingerprint.html– http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/ojis/history/ph_galtn.htm

Slide 7– http://www.bobaugust.com/n1.jpg

Slide 8– http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/not_guilty/sacco/18.html– http://www.doj.state.wi.us/dles/crimelabs/images/fa-ct-bl.jpg

Slide 9– http://www.mivs.com/products/videoproducts/comparison/images/px003-600.jpg

Slide 10– http://www.lindberghkidnappinghoax.com/osborn.jpg

Slide 11– http://www.lindberghkidnappinghoax.com/osborn.jpg

Slide 12– http://www.spectroscopynow.com/ftp_images/2Sl16-vinlandmap_lge.jpg

Slide 13– http://www.forensic-science.com/Hans_Gross.jpg

Pictures

– http://i.cdn.turner.com/trutv/trutv.com/graphics/photos/notorious_murders/mass/villisca/Edmond-Locard200.jpg– http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/capone-tax-evasion1.htm