Return to The Crime Lab
Start with the Sherlock Holmes Quote (Forensic Science pg 3)
"I've found it. I've found it," he shouted to my companion, running toward us with a test tube in hand. "I have found a reagent which is precipitated by hemoglobin and by nothing else. . . . The old guaiacum test was very clumsy and uncertain. So is the microscopic examination for blood corpuscles. The latter is valueless if the stains are a few hours old. Now, this appears to act as well whether the blood is old or new. Had this test been invented, there are hundreds of men now walking the earth who would long ago have paid the penalty for their crimes. . . . Criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point. A man is suspected of a crime months perhaps after it has been committed. His linen or clothes are examined and brownish stains discovered upon them. Are they blood stains, or rust stains, or fruit stains, or what are they? That is a question which has puzzled many an expert, and why? Because there was no reliable test. Now we have the Sherlock Holmes test, and there will no longer be any difficulty."
Renaissance: Belief = Truth. This was a time of deep religious belief permeating all aspects of culture.
Salem, MA witch trials:
Confession --> put to death
No confession --> tortured until you confess
Both of these cases follow a presumption of guilt.
Age of Enlightenment (Age of Reason), starts in the mid 1700s (time of the American & French Revolutions, the invention of the metric system in France), and this influences the introduction of science to criminal proceedings. As such, immediately following the Age of Reason, there is an explosion of advances in forensic science.
Note also that this is the time of the American & French Revolutions (July 4th, 1776 & July 14th, 1789, respectively), and the birth of the metric system (in France). The Declaration of Independence contains a phrase, under the influence of the Free Mason Inventor, Benjamin Franklin, "We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .":
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Us_declaration_independence.jpg
The original draft read, "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal . . ." but through the input of Benjamin Franklin, they became, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . ."
The phrase self-evident is revealing, in the meaning "offering up evidence." This is the result of a scientific mind.
Note the legal principles in the US Constitution drafted in that time period:
Double Jeopardy
Presumption of Innocence
Right to an attorney
Separation of Church & State
Forensic Science first shows up in early 19th Century (early 1800s):
Toxicology
Body measurements-then called anthropometry (now called biometrics) for criminal ID
This included measurement of jaws, hands, beards, ears, etc. Certain of these are unique to the individual, such as the shape of the ears (which was used to disprove a Russian woman's claim that she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia, and thus the only surviving member of the Romanov Royal family killed during the Russian Revolution of 1917-1918. NOTE: their bodies have since been found, including that of Anastasia.).
Unfortunately, this was also the era of Eugenics, which involved the assumption of certain features belonging to criminals, thus making a person easy to identify as a criminal, whether or not they were actually guilty of a crime, simply because of certain physical features.
Modern biometrics, which also incorporates more advanced technology, includes things such as retinal scans, or iris scans, to identify individuals, and it can also used for security reasons to identify individuals who have a right to enter certain facilities, rather than to identify a criminal.
1814 - Mathieu Orfila- Toxicology
1879 - Bertillon - anthropometry for criminal ID (aka biometrics), predates fingerprinting
Late 1800s - McCrone - Use of Microscopy in Forensics
1892 - Galton-fingerprints
1901- Lattes-blood typing
1910 - Osborne - Document Examination
1915 - Lattes-blood typing from dried blood stain
1930's - Goddard - ballistics
1932 - FBI lab opened (under J. Edgar Hoover)
Dependent on the development of technology!
Edmond Locard (1877-1966) - Locard's Exchange Principle
"Wherever he steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves, even unconsciously, will serve as a silent witness against him. Not only his fingerprints or his footprints, but his hair, the fibers from his clothes, the glass he breaks, the tool mark he leaves, the paint he scratches, the blood or semen he deposits or collects. All of these and more, bear mute witness against him. This is evidence that does not forget. It is not confused by the excitement of the moment. It is not absent because human witnesses are. It is factual evidence. Physical evidence cannot be wrong, it cannot perjure itself, it cannot be wholly absent. Only human failure to find it, study and understand it, can diminish its value."
- Professor Edmond Locard
father of
Locard's Exchange Principle
Ultimately this evidence must be able to stand up in court!
