History of Forensic Science

What is forensic science?

The application of science in the resolution of legal disputes is where science and the courts of law meet

What does the word forensics mean?

Belong to, used in, or suitable for a court of judicature or to public discussion and debate

What is the difference between forensics and forensic science?

Forensic science is the used of science to form an argument while forensics is an argument

What does forensic science help distinguish?

Actual evidence from simple coincidence without ambiguity

Forensic science will allow for certainty and ___?

Probabilistic considerations

What does forensic science take into account?

All alternative results and solutions

True or False: Forensic science does not pursue general impression to the level of specific details.  

What is the primary responsibility of a forensic scientist?

To performs scientific analyses and report the results

When considering the facts, a scientist must be…?

Detached and unbiased

What is contrite fallibilism?

Understanding the limits of our knowledge and the ability to acknowledge that we are not infallible as scientists

What are ethics?

A set of rules that govern the conduct of a professional working in a given field 

After death, the body reached a stage called…?

Decomposition by a process called autolysis

What is autolysis?

The organic substances are broken down into simpler organic matter

Who is Hsi Yuan Lu?

He wrote the first book to determine the cause of death.

What was the book that Hsi Yu Lun wrote called, and what did it include?

The Washing Away of Wrongs. It included everything from wound descriptions to methods of determining accidental suicide to ways to cure death

What did the Culshaw case go down in history as?

The first documented use of matching physical evidence

Who is Amboise Pare?

A surgeon who made methodical studies on the effects of violent death on internal organs

Who are Fortunato Fidelis and Paolo Zacchia?

Forensic pathologists who discovered the changes in the body due to a disease

Who is Carl Wilhelm Scheele?

A swedish chemist who developed a chemical test to detect the presences of arsenic in a dead body

Who is Alfred Swaine?

A forensic toxicologist who developed a test to detect arsenic in human tissues

Who is James Marsh?

He developed a method known as the Marsh Test to solve cases where arsenic was used as poison- human tissue

Who is Joseph Bell?

A Scottish surgeon who served as the personal surgeon to Queen Victoria whenever she was in Scotland

What did Joseph Bell emphasize?

The importance of close observation in making a medical diagnosis

What did Joseph Bell inspire? 

Sherlock Holmes

Who is Hans Gross?

He wrote a few pages of the conventional wisdom of crime scene investigation in the first recognized forensic science textbook, Criminal Investigation

What did Hans Gross introduce?

The term “criminalistics,” which was used to describe the analysis of physical evidence found at a crime scene

What did Hans Gross begin?

The journal, Kriminologie

Who is Alphonse Bertillon?

A French scientist who was the first to attempt at a systematic method for personal identification

What did Alphonse Bertillon’s system become known as, and what did it rely on?

Anthropometry or Bertillonage. It relied on 11 body measurements with accompanying descriptive information and photographs

Name the parts that Alphonse Bertillon had to measure for his Bertillonage.

1. Head length 2. Head breadth 3. Length of middle finger 4. length of left foot 5. length of the cubit

What case made it clear that two people could be confused while using the Bertillonage method?

The Will West case

Who was Victor Balthazard?

He was the medical examiner for Paris during his lifetime, who teamed up with Marcelle Lambert to publish The Hair of Man and Animals

What is the book The Hair of Man and Animals known as?

It is considered the first comprehensive book on hair analysis

What did Victor Balthazard develop?

He developed probability models that showed the likelihood that any two people would have the same fingerprints is one in 10/60

Who is Sir Francis Galton?

He developed the first classification system for fingerprints. Established fingerprint identification.

Where did Sir Francis Galton show his theories?

In a book named, Finger Prints

Who is Calvin Goddard?

He established the scientific examination of firearms in the United States

True or False: Calvin Goddard joined the Bureau of Forensic Ballistics while staying in the directorship of The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore

False. He left the directorship and the join the Bureau of Forensic Ballistics

What was Calvin Goddard’s’ most famous case?

The Valentine’s Day Massacre

As a result of the Valentine’s Day Massacre, what did Calvin Goddard lead?

A crime lab and he led it until 1932

Who is Edmond Locard?

He became a protege of the famous French pathologist, Andre Lacassagne

What did Edmond Locard begin after studying under Alphonse Bertillon?

A forensic laboratory in 1910 France

What theory did Edmond Locard create?

He created the Locard’s Exchange Principle: every contact leaves a trace

What case was Edmond Locard’s theory proven?

The Marie Lattelle. He identified the blood of the dead under the suspect’s fingernails

When did Forensic Photography come of age?

During the killings in London attributed to Jack the Ripper

What was the result as photography began to grow?

The Lausanne Institute of Police Science was founded on 1902

Who was Mathieu Orfila?

The Father of Toxicology. He wrote a book on forensic toxicology, and his work concentrated on the analysis of poison in the blood and other bodily fluids

What known case did Mathieu Orfila solve?

The Lafarge case

Who was Karl Landersteiner?

He realized that blood may be grouped into categories based on its physical properties

Who was Leone Lattes?

He was intrigued by Karl’s findings, so he developed a simple procedure for determining the blood groups of a dried bloodstain (Lattes Test 1915)

Who was Sir Alec Jeffreys?

Developing the techniques for DNA profiling and ultimately DNA fingerprinting

Who was Dwight?

Father of American Forensic Anthropology. He assembled skeletons following an Anatomical Dissection and used them for research to develop methodology

Who was Paul Revere?

An amateur dentist who did the dental work for Dr.Joseph Warren

Who was the father of odontology?

Dr. Oscar Amoedo. He identified many lives that were lost

Who was William James Herschel?

He realized that a person’s fingerprints do not change over time

Who is Paul Jean Coulier?

He observed that by using iodine fuming, fingerprints can be used on paper, with the use of magnifying glass to analyze the fingerprints, identifying the suspect

Who was Thomas Galton?

He published his book on his finding and classified the fingerprints into eight categories

Who was Edward Richard?

He developed a mathematical formula to classify and organize the 10 fingerprints

Who was Donn Parker?

He authored a book, Crime by Computer, which used digital information to investigate criminal activity with the help of a computer