Criminal Justice

Discuss the evolution of criminal investigations, starting from ‘Locard’s Exchange Principle’ in Forensic Science and extending to today’s use of artificial intelligence. In doing so, briefly share what you consider effective police investigative practices, beginning with the officer and detective’s arrival at the crime scene.  

300 words/2 references

b Sir Robert Peel (1788–
1850), whose efforts led to
the establishment of the
London Metropolitan
Police in 1829. English
police offi cers are still
referred to as “Bobbies,”
a play on Peel’s fi rst name.

(© The Granger Collection,
New York)

1
The Evolution
of Criminal
Investigation and
Forensic Science

C H A P T E R O B J E C T I V E S

1. Defi ne “ investigator. ”

2. Defi ne the most fundamental purpose of

investigation.

3. State four additional objectives of the investigative

process.

4. Explain the importance of the Bow Street Runners.

5. Discuss the contribution of Sir Robert Peel’s reform

to early policing in the United States.

6. Explain the history and contributions of the Pinkerton

National Detective Agency.

7. Identify the fi rst major federal investigative agencies

and their responsibilities.

8. Explain the Supreme Court’s “due process revolution”

and its impact on policing.

9. Discuss Bertillon’s method of anthropometry.

10. Summarize the historical development of fi ngerprint

identifi cation.

11. Explain the concept and practice of DNA typing.

12. Outline the milestones in the development of

fi rearms identifi cation.

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2

| I N T R O D U C T I O N

An investigator is someone who gathers,
documents, and evaluates evidence and
information. This is accomplished through the
process of investigation. The most fundamental

purpose of criminal investigation and forensic science is to discover the truth.
By making this pu r pose the cornerstone of their behavior, investigators can
remain faithful to their oath of offi ce and the accompanying ethical standards.
Four additional objectives of the investigative process are to (1) establish that
a crime was actually committed; (2) identify and apprehend the suspect(s);
(3) recover stolen property; and (4) assist in the prosecution of the person(s)
charged with the crime.

JURISDICTION

The authority of law-enforcement offi cers is limited by such
factors as the Constitution, court decisions, federal and
state laws, departmental policies, and jurisdiction, which
can be thought of as both a geographical area and the laws
for which an agency has enforcement responsibility.
The general rule is that the geographic jurisdiction of
police offi cers is limited to the area governed by their
employer. Law-enforcement offi cers employed by state
agencies and county, as well as metropolitan and city
police departments, follow this general pattern. Depend-
ing on the state, Sheriffs’ deputies and county police
departments usually patrol the unincorporated portions
of a county, although by contract they may provide law-
enforcement services to municipalities. Sheriff’s deputies
may or may not have jurisdiction outside their home
counties. Investigations beyond the governing authority’s
geographical boundaries usually are conducted with the
assistance of the appropriate law-enforcement agency.
Some states have statutorily extended the jurisdiction of
peace offi cers—for example, allowing investigation
beyond their normal jurisdi c tion for offenses committed
within the investigating offi cers’ regular jurisdiction,
when viewing serious misdemeanors or felonies, or
assisting another law-enforcement offi cer.
The FBI provides a good illustration of enforcement
responsibility . It has primary enforcement responsibility
for all federal criminal laws, except cases for which respon-
sibility is by statute or otherwise assigned specifi cally to
another agency. As a practical matter the enforcement
responsibility of the FBI is limited to roughly 200 laws.

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
AND FORENSIC SCIENCE

For present purposes, the roots of criminal investigation
can be traced back to England in the eighteenth century, a
p e riod marked by signifi cant social, political, and economic
changes. These changes were important to the develop-
ment of the fi rst modern detective force, the Bow Street

Runners . In addition, London was the home of the fi rst
police reformer, Robert Peel. Both of these factors contrib-
uted to the subsequent development of police organiza-
tions and criminal investigation in the United States.
Forensic science draws from diverse disciplines, such
as geology, physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics,
to study physical evidence related to crime. If it is sus-
pected that a pe r son has died from poisoning, for exam-
ple, a toxicologist, who specializes in identifying poisons
and their physiological effects on humans and animals,
can assist in the investigation. Experts in other areas,
such as botany, forensic pathology, entomology, and
archaeology, may also provide helpful information to
criminal investig a tors.
Over hundreds of years many people have made con-
tributions to the fi elds of criminal investigation and
forensic science. To recognize all of them is beyond the
scope of this chapter and requires setting some limits.
This chapter presents a brief history of criminal investiga-
tion and forensic science. Many volumes have been wri t-
ten about these entwined topics, but the space that can
be devoted to them here is limited. Suffi cient broad per-
spectives and supporting details, however, are included

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T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C R I M I N A L I N V E S T I G AT I O N 3

and by 1785 at least four of the Bow Street Runners were
no longer volunteers but paid government detectives. 3

THE METROPOLITAN POLICE ACT OF 1829

In 1816, 1818, and again in 1822, England’s Parliament
rejected proposals for a centralized professional police
force for London as different political philosophies
clashed. One group argued that such a force was a direct
threat to personal liberty. The other group—composed
of reformers such as Jeremy Bentham and Patrick
Colquhoun—argued that the absence, rather than the
presence, of social control was the greater danger to per-
sonal liberty. Finally, in 1829, owing in large measure to
the efforts of Sir Robert Peel , Pa r liament passed the
Metropolitan Police Act , which created a metropolitan
police force for London. Police headquarters b e came
known as “Scotland Yard,” because the building formerly
had housed Scottish royalty. Police constables were
referred to as “Bobbies,” a play on Peel’s fi rst name. 4
Because French citizens had experienced oppression
under centralized police, the British public was suspi-
cious of, and at times even hostile to, the new force. In
response to the high standards set for the police force,
there were 5,000 dismissals and 6,000 forced resignations
from the force during the fi rst three years of operations. 5
This record was a clear indication to the public that police
admi n istrators were requiring offi cers to maintain high
standards of conduct. Within a few years, the London
Metropolitan Police had won a reputation for fairness,
and it became the international model of professional
policing. Despite the growing popularity of the uni-
formed Bobbies, however, there was fear that the use of
“police spies” —detectives in plain clothes—would reduce
civil liberties.
In the years immediately following 1829, some Metro-
politan Police constables were temporarily relieved from
patrolling in uniform to investigate crimes on their beats. 6
As the distin c tion between the use of uniformed consta-
bles to prevent crime and the use of plai n clothes detec-
tives for investigation and surveillance became clear, the
public became uneasy. Illustratively, in 1833, a Sergeant

Popay was dismissed following a parliamentary investi-
gation that revealed that he had infi ltrated a radical
group, acquired a leadership pos i tion, and argued for the
use of violence. In 1842, a regular detective branch was
opened at Scotland Yard ( Figure 1-1 ), superseding the Bow
Street force. 7 Initially, the detective force was limited to
no more than 16 investigators, and its operations were
restricted because of a distrust of “clandestine methods.” 8

AMERICAN INITIATIVES

The success of Peel’s reform in England did not go unno-
ticed in the United States. Stephen Girard bequeathed
$33,190 to Philade l phia to develop a competent police
force. In 1833 Philadelphia passed an ordinance creating

Introduction

Jurisdiction

Criminal Investigation and Forensic Science

The Evolution of Criminal Investigation

Historical Milestones of Forensic Science

Recent Developments

C H A P T E R O U T L I N E

in this chapter to enable readers intrigued by these sub-
jects to independently pursue their interest armed with a
working knowledge of the b a sics.

THE EVOLUTION OF
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

THE IMPACT OF THE AGRICULTURAL
AND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS

During the eighteenth century, two events—an agricul-
tural revolution and an industrial revolution—began a
process of change that profoundly affected how police
services were delivered and investigations conducted.
Improved agricultural methods, such as the i n troduction
in 1730 of Charles Townshend’s crop rotation system and
Jethro Tull’s four-bladed plow, gave England increased
agricu l tural productivity in the fi rst half of the eighteenth
century. 1 Improvements in agriculture were essential pre-
conditions to the Indu s trial Revolution in the second half
of the eighteenth century, because they freed people from
farm work for city jobs. As the popul a tion of England’s
cities grew, slums also expanded, crime increased, and
disorders became more fr e quent. Consequently, public
demands for go v ernment to control crime grew louder.

THE FIELDINGS: CRIME INFORMATION
AND THE BOW STREET RUNNERS

In 1748, Henry Fielding became chief magistrate of Bow
Street and set out to improve the administration of jus-
tice. In 1750, he esta b lished a small group of volunteer,
non-uniformed home owners to “take thieves.” Known
as the “Bow Street Runners,” these Londo n ers hurried to
the scenes of reported crimes and began investigations,
thus becoming the fi rst modern detective force. By 1752,
Fiel d ing began publishing The Covent Garden Journal as a
means of circulating the descriptions of wanted persons.
On his death in 1754, Henry Fielding was succeeded by
his blind half-brother, John Fielding , who carried on Henry’s
ideas for another 25 years. 2 Under John Fielding, Bow
Street b e came a clearinghouse for information on crime,

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4 C H A P T E R 1 T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C R I M I N A L I N V E S T I G AT I O N A N D F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E

America’s fi rst paid, daylight police force. Although the
ordinance was repealed just three years later, the concept
of a paid police force would reappear as American cities
staggered under the burdens of tremendous population
growth, poverty, and massive crime. In 1836 New York
City rejected the n o tion of a police force organized along
the lines advocated by Peel. The committee studying the
idea concluded it was better in eme r gencies to rely on
citizens than “despotic governments.” 9
Thus, before mid-century, few American cities had
police service, and those that existed were i n adequate.
Many cities had paid police departments only at night or
treated day and night police services as entirely separate
organizations. Finally, in 1844 the New York state legisla-
ture created the fi rst unifi ed police force in the country,
although New York City did not actually implement the
measure until a year later. Other cities rapidly followed

m F IGURE 1-1 New Scotland Yard

In 1890 the Metropolitan Police left their original quarters
and were housed in New Scotland Yard, pictured above.
Subsequently, in 1967 the Metropolitan Police moved again,
to their present facilities, which are also referred to as New
Scotland Yard.

New York’s lead: Chicago in 1851, New Orleans and
Cincinnati in 1852, and Baltimore and Newark in 1857.
By 1880 vi r tually every major American city had a police
force based on England’s Peelian reforms of 1829 and
pioneered in this country by New York City.
If one of the problems of the London Metropolitan
Police had been getting the public to accept some con-
stables’ working out of un i form as detectives, in the
United States the problem was getting the police to wear
uniforms in the fi rst place. American offi cers b e lieved
that a uniform made them easy targets for public harass-
ment and made them look like servants. Only after the
Civil War did the wearing of a uniform—invariably
Union blue—become widely accepted by American police
offi cers.

PINKERTON’S NATIONAL DETECTIVE AGENCY

America needed reliable detectives for several reasons:
(1) graft and corruption were common among America’s
big-city p o lice offi cers; (2) the jurisdiction of sheriffs’
offi ces and munic i pal offi cers was limited; and (3) there
was little information sharing by law-enforcement agen-
cies. Thus, offenders often fl ed from one jurisdiction to
another with i m punity. Information sharing has vastly
improved in the last 150 years but is an area that still
requires further development.
In 1846 seeing the need for reliable investigators, two
former St. Louis police offi cers formed the fi rst recorded
private detective agency. 10 However, the major private
detective agency of the nineteenth century was formed
by Allan Pinkerton (1819–1884, Figure 1-2. ). In 1850, after
working as a Chicago detective and a U.S. mail agent, 11
Pinkerton formed a private detective agency with attor-
ney Edward Rucker. 12 Pinkerton’s trademark was an
open eye above the slogan “We never sleep.” 13 The trade-
mark gave rise to the use of the term “private eye” in
reference to any private investigator. 14 The Pinkertons
enjoyed such enormous success in the United States
and throughout the world that some people thought
“Pinkerton” was a nickname for any American govern-
ment detective. 15
The list of achievements by Pinkerton is impressive.
Pinkerton reportedly discovered and foiled an assassina-
tion attempt on Pres i dent-elect Lincoln in Baltimore. 16 At
the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Pinkerton orga-
nized a Secret Service Division within the army (not to
be confused with the U.S. Secret Service) and worked
closely with General McClellan. 17 He infi ltrated Confed-
erate lines in disguise on several occasions and usually
functioned as a mil i tary analyst. 18
Following the Civil War, the Pinkertons were primarily
engaged in two broad areas: (1) controlling a discontented
working class, which was pushing for better wages and
working conditions, and (2) pursuing bank and railroad
robbers. 19 Unrestricted by jurisdi c tional limits, Pi n kerton
agents roamed far and wide pursuing lawbreakers. In a

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T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C R I M I N A L I N V E S T I G AT I O N 5

violent time, they sometimes used harsh and unwise
methods. For instance, suspecting that they had found
the hideout of Jesse James’s gang, Pinkerton agents
lobbed in a 32-pound bomb, killing a boy and injuring a
woman. 20
Pinkerton understood the importance of information,
records, and publicity and made good use of all of them.
For example, in 1868, Pin k erton agent Dick Winscott took
on the Reno gang. Winscott located Fred and John Reno
and, after a drinking bout, persuaded them to let him

m F IGURE 1-2 Pinkerton at work

Allan Pinkerton, President Lincoln, and General McClellan at
Antietam, Maryland, about October 3, 1862. Born in Scotland,
Allan Pinkerton was the son of a police sergeant. He found
e m ployment as a barrel maker and advanced to supervisor.
At the same time, this red-headed, strong-willed man
advocated more voice in government for ordinary people,
a position that resulted in him becoming a wanted man.
Narrowly avoiding arrest on his wedding day, Pinkerton
and his wife fl ed to America, surviving a shipwreck while
en route. He started a successful barrel-making company.
While owner of that business, his initiative led to the arrest
of counterfeiters. This gave him an appetite for police work,
his father’s profession, and changed his life and American
poli c ing forever. (Courtesy Pinkerton’s Archives)

photograph them. 21 He sent the photographs to Pinkerton
fi les, and within a year the Reno gang was smashed. 22
Pin k erton also collected photographs of jewel thieves and
other types of criminals and photographed horses to pre-
vent illegal substit u tions before races. 23 The Pinkertons
also pushed Butch Cassidy (Robert Parker) and the Sun
Dance Kid (Harry Longabaugh) into leaving the United
States for South America, where they were reportedly
killed by Bolivian soldiers at San Vincente in 1909 ( Fig-
ure 1-3 .) Because of their better-known antilabor activi-
ties, the Pinkertons’ other work often is overlooked. But
they were the only consistently competent detectives
available in this country for over 50 years 24 and provided
a good model for government d e te c tives.

m F IGURE 1-3 Butch Cassidy’s Pinkerton record

Note the “P.N.D.A.” initials on the fi rst line, which stand for
Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Pinkerton agents were
highly successful in combating the bank and train robbers of
the Old West, such as the Hole in the Wall gang, so named
because of the small opening through rocky walls that led
to the valley in Johnson County, Wyoming, used as their
hideout. As many as 40 bandits may have lived there in
six cabins. Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid were both
members of the Hole in the Wall gang at various times.
(Courtesy Wyoming State Archives and Historical

Department)

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6 C H A P T E R 1 T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C R I M I N A L I N V E S T I G AT I O N A N D F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E

b F IGURE 1-4

NYPD rogues’ gallery

Uniformed offi cers of the New York
City Police Department maintaining
a rogues’ gallery in the detective
bureau, circa 1896. Police
departments have used rogues’
galleries since the late 1850s.
(Library of Congress)

THE EMERGENCE OF MUNICIPAL DETECTIVES

As early as 1845 New York City had 800 plainclothes offi –
cers, 25 although not until 1857 were the police authorized
to designate 20 patrol offi cers as detectives. 26 In November
1857 the New York City Police Department set up a rogues’

gallery ( Figure 1-4 )—photographs of known offenders
arranged by criminal specialty and height—and by June
1858, it had over 700 photographs for dete c tives to study
so that they might recognize criminals on the street. 27
Photographs from rogues’ galleries of that era reveal
that some offenders grimaced, puffed their cheeks, rolled
their eyes, and othe r wise tried to distort their appearance
to lessen the chance of later recognition.
To assist detectives, in 1884 Chicago established this
country’s fi rst municipal Criminal Identifi cation Bureau. 28
The Atlanta P o lice Department’s Detective Bureau was
organized in 1885 with a staff of one captain, one ser-
geant, and eight detectives. 29 In 1886 Thomas Byrnes, the
dynamic chief detective of New York City, published Pro-
fessional Criminals in America, which included pi c tures,
descriptions, and the methods of all criminals known to
him. 30 Byrnes thereby contributed to information sharing
among police departments. To supplement the rogues’
gallery, Byrnes instituted the Mulberry Street Morning

Parade . At 9 o’clock every morning, all criminals arrested
in the past 24 hours were marched before his detectives,
who were expected to make notes and to recognize the
criminals later. 31

FEDERAL AND STATE DEVELOPMENTS

From its earliest days, the federal government employed
investigators to detect revenue violations, but their respon-
sibilities were na r row and their numbers few. 32 In 1865
Congress created the U.S. Secret Service to combat coun-
terfeiting. In 1903—two years after President McKinley
was a s sassinated by Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo—the previ-
ously informal arrangement of guarding the president
was made a permanent Secret Service r e sponsibility. 33
In 1905 the California Bureau of Criminal Identifi ca-
tion was set up to share information about criminal activ-
ity, and Pennsylvania governor Samuel Pennypacker
signed legislation creating a state police force. Widely
regarded then by labor as “strikebusters on manage-
ment’s side,” the Pennsylvania State Police nevertheless
was the prototype for modern state police organiz a tions
( Figure 1-5 ). New York and Michigan in 1917 and Dela-
ware in 1919 adopted the state police concept. Since then,
state police forces have assumed the function of provid-
ing local p o lice with help in investigations.
Although Virginia, Kentucky, and Arkansas have a
State Police, there are none in the deep South. To a large
degree, their use in that area has been foiled by politically
potent sheriffs seeking to maintain autonomy.
Where State Police agencies do not exist, a common
arrangement is to have a department that focuses pri-
marily on traffi c enforcement and another for criminal
investigation—for example, in North Carolina there is a

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c F IGURE 1-6 Bonnie Parker

Texas-born Bonnie Parker (1910–1934) was part of the murderous
Barrow gang, which robbed and murdered its way across

Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, and New Mexico. In 1930, she
smuggled a gun into the Waco (Texas) County Jail, helping Clyde

Barrow and a companion to escape. From 1932 until 1934, Bonnie
and Clyde left a deadly trail before they were stopped. (Courtesy FBI)

T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C R I M I N A L I N V E S T I G AT I O N 7

m F IGURE 1-5 The Pennsylvania State Police

Troop D, Pennsylvania State Police, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, 1906. Note that both plainclothes and un i formed personnel are
represented. (Courtesy Pennsylvania State Police)

State Highway Patrol and the State Bureau of Investigation
(SBI). In such arrangements the crime laboratory may be a
separate department or part of the state investigative agency.
Similarly, casino gaming enforcement may be a function
of a state police agency or a state gaming commi s sion.
After Prohibition was adopted nationally in 1920, the
Bureau of Internal Revenue was responsible for its
enforcement. Eventually the ranks of the bureau’s agents
swelled to a massive 4,000. 34 Because the Bureau of Inter-
nal Revenue was lodged in the Department of the Trea-
sury, these federal agents were referred to as T-men.
In 1908 U.S. Attorney General Charles Bonaparte cre-
ated the embryo of what was later to become the Federal
Bureau of Investig a tion (FBI) when he ordered that inves-
tigations were to be handled by a special group. In 1924
J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972) assumed leadership of the
Bureau of Investigation; 11 years later Congress passed a
measure giving the FBI its present designation.
When Prohibition was repealed by the Eighteenth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1933, many for-
mer bootleggers and other crim i nals turned to bank rob-

bery and kidnapping. 35 During the Depression, some
people saw John Dillinger, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and Bonnie
and Clyde ( Figures 1-6 and 1-7 ) “as plain folks” and did
not grieve over a bank robbery or the kidnapping of a

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8 C H A P T E R 1 T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C R I M I N A L I N V E S T I G AT I O N A N D F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E

millionaire. 36 Given the restricted roles of other federal
investig a tive agencies, it became the FBI’s role to deal
with these criminals.
Under Hoover, who understood the importance and
uses of information, records, and publicity as well as
Allan Pinkerton had, the FBI became known for investi-
gative effi ciency. In 1932, the FBI established a crime
laboratory and made its services available free to state
and local police ( Figure 1-8 ). In 1935 it started the National

Academy, a training course for state and local police. In
1967 the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) was made

operational by the FBI, providing data on wanted persons
and property stolen from all 50 states. Altogether, these
developments gave the FBI considerable infl uence over
law enforcement throughout the country. Although some
people argue that such federal infl uence is undesirable,
others point out that Hoover and the FBI strengthened
police practices in this country, from keeping crime sta-
tistics to improving investigation.
The Harrison Act (1914) made the distribution of non-
medical drugs a federal crime. Enforcement responsibil-
ity was initially given to the Internal Rev e nue Service,
although by 1930 a separate Federal Bureau of Narcotics
(FBN) was established in the Treasury Department. In
1949 a federal commission noted that federal narcotics
enforcement was fragmented among several agencies,
including the Border Patrol and Customs, resulting in
duplication of effort and other ills. In 1968 some consoli-
dation of effort was achieved with the creation of the
Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) in the
Department of Justice, and in 1973, with the creation of
its successor, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) .
Today the DEA devotes many of its resources to fi ght-
ing international drug traffi c. Like the FBI, the DEA trains
state and local police in investigative work. The training
focuses on recognition of illegal drugs, control of drug pur-
chases, surveillance methods, and handling of i n formants.
In 2002 several federal agencies were consolidated to
form Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

THE POLICE AND THE U.S. SUPREME COURT

As the highest court in this country, the Supreme Court
is obligated to review cases and to make decisions that
often have considerable impact. From 1961 to 1966, a
period known as the “due process revolution,” the

m F IGURE 1-7 Clyde Barrow

Clyde Barrow (1909–1934) was captured after his escape
from the Waco County Jail and served two years in prison.
Upon his release, he and Bonnie began their rampage.
Outside of Black Lake, Louisiana, they were killed by law-
enforcement offi cers who had persistently been pursuing them.
(Courtesy FBI )

b F IGURE 1-8

FBI crime laboratory

In 2003 the FBI occupied its 463,000
square foot state-of-the-art crime
laboratory, which cost $130 million.
(© AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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H I S T O R I C A L M I L E S T O N E S O F F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E 9

uniquely identity, or verify the identity of, an individual
through characteristics of the human body. Biometrics is
superior to eye witness identifi cation because it has a sci-
entifi c foundation.
Historically, there have been three major scientifi c sys-
tems of biometric-based personal identifi cation of crimi-
nals in wide use: anthropometry, dactylography, and
deox y ribon u cleic acid (DNA) typing. The fi rst was rela-
tively short lived. The second, dactylography, or fi nge r-
print ident i fi cation, remains in use today throughout the
world. The third, DNA, is a relatively contemporary
development.

Anthropometry
Anthropometry was developed by Alphonse Bertillon
(1853–1914), who is rightly regarded as the father of crim-
inal identifi cation ( Figure 1-9) . The fi rst method of criminal
identifi cation that was thought to be reliable, anthropometry
“was based on the fact that every human being differs
from every other one in the exact measurements of their
body, and that the sum of these measurements yields a
characteristic formula for each individual.” 38 Figure 1-10
depicts a New York City police detective taking one type
of mea s urement used in the “Bertillon system.”

m F IGURE 1-9 Bertillon

Alphonse Bertillon (1853–1914), the father of personal
identifi cation. In 1882, he began using his system on those
incarcerated in Paris’s Palais de Justice. (Courtesy Jacques Genthial)

Supreme Court became unusually active in hearing cases
involving the rights of criminal suspects and defendants.
Its decisions focused on two vital a r eas: (1) search and
seizure and (2) the right to legal representation. Among
those cases was Miranda v. Arizona (1966), which estab-
lished the well-known “Miranda rights.” Miranda and
other decisions infuriated the police, who felt that the
Supreme Court had “tied their hands.”
So what did the due process revolution and subse-
quent Supreme Court decisions really change? Question-
able and improper police proc e dures and tactics were
greatly reduced. In turn, this created the need to d e velop
new procedures and tactics and to make sure that offi cers
were well trained in their uses. To no small extent, this
cycle has hastened the continuing professionalization of
the police while also asser t ing the principle that the
action of police offi cers an y where may be subject to close
scrutiny by the Supreme Court.

HISTORICAL MILESTONES
OF FORENSIC SCIENCE

The origins of criminalistics or forensic science are largely
European. Forensic science draws from diverse disci-
plines, such as geology, physics, chemi s try, biology, and
mathematics, to study physical evidence r e lated to crime.
The fi rst major book describing the application of scien-
tifi c disciplines to criminal investigation was written in
1893 by Hans Gross , a public prosecutor and later a judge
from Graz, Austria. 37 Translated into English in 1906 under
the title Criminal Investigation, it remains highly respected
today as the seminal work in the fi eld.
The Frenchman Edmond Locard established the fi rst
forensic laboratory in Lyon in 1910. All crime scenes are
searched on the basis of Locard’s exchange principle,
which asserts that when perpetrators come into contact
with the scene, they will leave som e thing of themselves
and take away something from the scene, for example,
hairs and fi bers. Expressed somewhat differently, Locard’s
exchange principle states that there is something to be
found. He is also recognized as the father of poreoscopy,
the study of pores and for advocating that if there were
12 points of agreement between two compared fi nger-
prints the identity was certain.
Forensic science enjoys periods of stability, but on the
whole it is dynamic and in constant progress. To illustrate
this principle of dynamic change, the histories of two
commonly used ser v ices—biometric-based personal iden-
tifi cation and fi rearms ide n tifi cation—are traced in this
section.

BIOMETRIC BASED PERSONAL
IDENTIFICATION

Biometrics is from the Greek meaning life measurement.
The most important goal of biometric measurements is to

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10 C H A P T E R 1 T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C R I M I N A L I N V E S T I G AT I O N A N D F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E

warmly received. After rea d ing it, the chief said “your
report sounds like a joke.” 45
Yet in 1883 the “joke” received worldwide attention,
because within 90 days of its implementation on an
experimental basis, Be r tillon correctly made his fi rst crim-
inal identifi cation. Soon, almost all European countries
adopted Bertillon’s system of anthropom e try. In 1888
Bertillon’s fertile mind produced yet another inn o vation,
the portrait parlé or “speaking picture,” which combines
full-face and profi le ph o tographs of each criminal with
his or her exact body measurements and other descriptive
data onto a single card ( Figure 1-11 ).
After the turn of the century, many countries aban-
doned anthropometry and adopted the simpler and
more reliable system of fi nge r prints instead. Bertillon
himself was not insensitive to the potential of fi nger-
prints. In 1902, he solved the murder of Joseph Riebel
when he discovered the prints of Henri Scheffer on the
pane of a glass cupboard. 46 Yet Bertillon’s rigid personal-
ity would not allow him to acknowledge the clear supe-
riority of dactylography to anthropometry. Even so,
Bertillon’s place in history is secure as the father of crim-
inal identifi cation.

Dactylography
Dactylography is the study of fi ngerprints. Fingerprints
were used on contracts during China’s T’ang Dynasty

There was little in Alphonse Bertillon’s early life to
suggest that he would later make signifi cant contribu-
tions. He was the gran d son of a well-known naturalist
and mathematician and the son of a distinguished
French physician and statistician, who was also the vice
pre s ident of the Anthropological Society of Paris. 39
Despite the advantages Bertillon had, he failed in a
number of jobs. He was, therefore, able to obtain only a
minor position in 1879, fi ling cards on criminals for the
Paris police, because of his father’s good co n nections. 40
The cards described criminals so vaguely that they
might have fi t almost anyone: “stature: average . . . face:
ordinary.” 41
Bertillon wondered why so many resources were wasted
on a useless system of identifying crim i nals. 42 He began
comparing photographs of criminals and taking measure-
ments of those who had been arrested. 43 Bertillon con-
cluded that if 11 physical measurements of a person were
taken, the chances of fi nding another person with the
same 11 measurements were 4,191,304 to 1. 44 His report
outlining his criminal identifi cation system was not

m F IGURE 1-10 Taking a Bertillon measurement

A New York City Police detective taking a Bertillon
measurement of the right ear, one of the 11 measurements
that made up anthropometry. This photograph was taken
around 1896. Note in this photo and the one that
immediately follows that the right ear is consistently part of
the measurements made. (Library of Congress)

m F IGURE 1-11 Early identifi cation card

A Bertillon-style identifi cation card, combining both personal
measurements and photographs, prepared on Fe b ruary 28,
1917, by the Chicago Police Department. (Courtesy Chicago Police

Department)

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H I S T O R I C A L M I L E S T O N E S O F F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E 11

Inspector Alvarez, obtained South America’s fi rst crimi-
nal conviction based on fi n gerprints by using Vucetich’s
system to convict a woman of beating her two children
to death. 58

The Henry System . The fi nal breakthrough for the fi nger-
print method of personal identifi cation was made by
Edward Henry . At the age of 23 he went to India and by
1891 had become the inspector general of police of Nepal,
the same province in which Herschel had worked some
15 years earlier. 59 Subject to many of the same infl uences
as Herschel, but apparently working independently,
Henry developed an interest in fi ngerprints 60 and insti-
tuted Bertillon’s system with the addition of fi ngerprints
to the cards. In 1893, Henry obtained a copy of Galton’s
book and began working on a simple, reliable method of
classifi cation. The governor general of India received a
report from Henry in 1897 recommending that anthro-
pometry be dropped in favor of Henry’s fi ngerprint clas-
sifi cation system. It was adopted throughout Bri t ish India
just six months later. 61 In 1900 Henry’s system was
adopted in England. The next year, Henry enjoyed two
personal triumphs, the publication of his Classifi cation and
Use of Finger Prints and his appointment as assi s tant
police commissioner of London, 62 rising to the post of
commissioner two years later.

Faurot and “James Jones.” In 1904 New York City Detec-
tive Sergeant Joseph Faurot was sent to England to study
fi nge r prints, becoming the fi rst foreigner trained in the
use of the Henry classifi cation system. Upon Faurot’s
return, the new police commissioner told him to forget
about such “scientifi c notions” and transferred him to
walking a beat. 63 In 1906 Faurot arrested a man dressed
in formal ev e ning wear but not wearing shoes, as the
man crept out of a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. 64
Claiming to be a respectable citizen named “James Jones,”
the man demanded to see the British consul and threat-
ened Faurot with nasty cons e quences. 65 Faurot sent the
man’s fi ngerprints to Sco t land Yard 66 and got back a reply
that “James Jones” was actually Daniel Nolan, who had
12 prior convictions of hotel thefts and who was wanted
for burglarizing a home in England. Confronted with
this evidence, Nolan confessed to several thefts in the
Waldorf-Astoria and received a sentence of seven years. 67
Newspaper stories about the case advanced the use of
fi ngerprints in this country.

The West Case . Despite the fame achieved by Faurot, the
most important incident to advance the use of fi ngerprints
in this country was the West case ( Figure 1-12 ). In 1903,
Will West arrived at the U.S. penitentiary at Leavenworth,
Kansas. While West was being processed in through
identifi cation, a staff member said that there was already
a photograph and Bertillon measurements for him on
fi le. But a comparison of fi ngerprints showed that
despite identical appearances and nearly identical Bertillon

in the eighth century as well as on offi cial papers in
fourteenth-century Persia and seventeenth-century
England. 47 In the fi rst century, the Roman lawyer
Quintilianus introduced a bloody fi ngerprint in a mur-
der trial, successfully defending a child against the charge
of murdering his f a ther. 48
In a scientifi c context, in 1684 in England, Dr. Nehemiah
Grew fi rst called attention to the system of pores and
ridges in the hands and feet. 49 Just two years later,
Marcello Malpighi made similar observations. 50 In 1823,
John Perkinje, a professor at the University of Breslau,
named nine standard types of fi ngerprint patterns and
outlined a broad method of classifi cation. 51 Despite
these early sti r rings, it was not until 1900 that a country,
England, used dactylography as a system of criminal
identifi cation.

The Herschel-Faulds Controversy . Beginning in 1858
William Herschel, a British offi cial in India, requested the
palm prints and fi ngerprints of those with whom he did
business, thinking that it might awe people into keeping
agreements. 52 Over the next 20 years, Herschel noted
from his records that the patterns of the lines on the fi n-
gerprints never changed for an individual. Excited by the
prospects of applying this know l edge to the identifi cation
of criminals, Herschel wrote in 1877 to the inspector gen-
eral of the prisons of Be n gal. The reply made it clear that
the inspector general was not interested. Discouraged,
Herschel made no further efforts to pursue his discovery.
Henry Faulds, a Scottish physician at the Tsukiji Hospital
in Tokyo, had been interested in fi ngerprints for several
years before 1880. When a thief left a sooty print on a
whitewashed wall, Faulds was able to tell that the person
in police cu s tody was not the thief 53 and to match another
suspect’s fi ngerprints with those on the wall. 54 Faulds
reported his fi ndings in the journal Nature in 1880. Herschel
read the account and published a r e ply, claiming credit
for the discovery over 20 years before. A controversy
broke out that was never resolved to anyone’s satisfac-
tion. Because there was also no offi cial interest in using
fi ngerprints, both Herschel and Faulds were even further
frustrated.

Galton’s and Vucetich’s Systems . In 1888 Sir Francis Galton
(1822–1911) turned his attention to criminal identifi ca-
tion. 55 When Galton contacted the editor of Nature for
both Herschel’s and Faulds’s addresses, he was by chance
sent only Herschel’s. Contacted by Galton, Herschel
unselfi shly turned over all his fi les in the hopes that this
r e vived interest would lead to practical uses of fi nger-
prints. 56 In 1892 Galton published the fi rst defi nitive
book on dactylography, Finger Prints. It presented statis-
tical proof of the uniqueness of fi ngerprints and out-
lined many principles of identifi cation by fi nge r prints. 57
In Argentina, in 1894, Juan Vucetich (1858–1925) pub-
lished Dactiloscopia Comparada, outlining his method of
fi nge r print classifi cation. In 1892 a disciple of Vucetich’s,

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12 C H A P T E R 1 T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C R I M I N A L I N V E S T I G AT I O N A N D F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E

m F IGURE 1-12 The Two Wests

William West had been in Leavenworth Prison since 1901; Will West arrived two years later. Given their similar appearances and
nearly identical anthropometry measurements, one can understand the confusion created upon Will West’s arrival. (Courtesy FBI)

178.5
187.0

91.2
19.7
15.8
14.8
6.6

28.2
12.3
9.7

50.2

177.5
188.0

91.3
19.8
15.9
14.8

6.5
27.5
12.2

9.6
50.3

Bertillon:
Measurements (in centimeters)
Height
Outstretched arms
Trunk
Head length
Head width
Cheek width
Right ear
Left foot
Left middle finger
Left little finger
Left forearm

Will WestWilliam West

measurements, the identifi cation card on fi le belonged to
a William West, who had been in Leavenworth since
1901. The incident accelerated the reco g nition that fi nger-
prints were superior to anthropometry as a system of
identifi cation.

Rivalry of Vucetich’s and Henry’s Systems
Vucetich’s book on fi ngerprint classifi cation was pub-
lished in 1894, seven years before Henry’s, but Henry’s
system has become much more widely used. However,
some experts think that Vucetich’s system was superior. 68
The rivalry between partisans of the two class i fi cation
systems deserves a t tention.
In 1911 the provincial government of Buenos Aires
passed a law requiring fi n gerprint registration for all
adults subject to military service and eligible to vote. 69 By
1913 Vucetich had completed the task and decided to
travel. In his travels, he was sho w ered with decorations
for his classifi cation system. But when he vi s ited Bertillon
to pay his respects to the father of criminal identifi ca-
tion, 70 Bertillon kept Vucetich waiting and fi nally opened
the door just long enough to yell, “Sir, you have done me
great harm,” b e fore slamming it shut again. 71 They were
never to meet again. On his return to Argentina, Vucetich
was to face further humiliation. When Buenos Aires
planned an expansion of fi ngerprint registration, there
were strong protests. In 1917 the Argentine government
ca n celed registrations, seized Vucetich’s records, and for-
bade him to continue his work. 72 In 1925 much as Bertillon

had in 1914, Vucetich died a disappointed man. Although
Vucetich’s system is in use in South America today,
Vucetich did not live long enough to see the vindication
of his life’s work.
In contrast, Henry became the head of what was then
the world’s most prestigious police organization and
enjoyed the support of his government. These advan-
tages, coupled with Vucetich’s loss of support in his own
country, meant that the Henry classifi cation would
become adopted virtually throughout the world.

DNA

DNA as “Blueprint”
Although deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was discovered
in  1868, scientists were slow to understand its role in
heredity. 73 During the early 1950s, James Watson and
Francis Crick deduced the structure of DNA, ushering in
a new era in the study of genetics. 74 Such developments
were seemingly of peripheral interest to forensic scien-
tists until 1985, when research into the structure of the
human gene by Alec Jeffreys and his colleagues at Leices-
ter University, England, led to the discovery that portions
of the DNA structure of certain genes can be as unique
to individuals as are fi ngerprints. 75 According to Jeffreys,
the chance of two persons having identical DNA patterns
is between 30 bi l lion and 100 billion to 1. 76
In all life forms—with the exception of a few viruses—
the basis for variation lies in genetic material called

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H I S T O R I C A L M I L E S T O N E S O F F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E 13

DNA. 77 This DNA is a chemical “blueprint” that deter-
mines everything from hair color to susceptibility to
diseases 78 ( Figure 1-13 ). In every cell of the same human
that contains DNA, this blueprint is identical, whether
the material is blood, tissue, spermatozoa, bone marrow,
tooth pulp, saliva, or a hair root cell. 79 Thus, with the
exception of identical twins, every person has distinc-
tive DNA.

The Enderby Cases
The fi rst use of DNA in a criminal case was in 1987 in
England. 80 In 1983 Lynda Mann, age 15, was raped and
murdered near the village of Enderby . This case was
unsolved. Three years later, another 15-year-old, Dawn
Ashworth, was a victim in a similar offense. Comparing
the DNA “fi ngerprints” derived from semen recovered
from both victims’ bodies, i n vest i gators realized that
the same man had raped and killed both women. A
17-year-old man was initially arrested and a sample of
his blood was subjected to DNA analysis. This man’s
innocence, however, was clearly established by the lack
of a DNA match, and he was released. Subsequently, all
males in the Enderby area between 13 and 30 years of
age were asked by the police to voluntarily provide
blood samples for DNA ty p ing. Of 5,500 men living in
the area, all but two complied with the request. A man
then came forward and told the police that he had used
false identifi cation to supply a blood sample in the name
of a friend. This friend, Colin Pitchfork, was subse-
quently a r rested and convicted of Ashworth’s murder,

with DNA evidence playing a crucial role in the prose-
c u tion’s case.

The Orlando Cases
During 1986 a series of rapes and assaults occurred in
Orlando, Florida, that resulted in the fi rst use of DNA in
criminal investigation cases in this country. 81 The crimes
shared a common pattern: the attacks occurred after mid-
night, in the victims’ homes, by a knife-wielding perpe-
trator. The perpetrator was quick to cover the eyes of the
victims with a sheet or blanket, so none of them could
give detailed d e scriptions of their assailant. During early
1987, investigators staking out a neighborhood in which
it was b e lieved the rapist might strike saw a blue 1979
Ford speeding out of the area. They followed the car for
a short distance b e fore it crashed into a utility pole while
making a turn.
The suspect, Tommie Lee A n drews, lived just 3 miles
from the home of the fi rst victim, who identifi ed him at
a photographic lineup the next morning. The prosecu-
tor’s case was certainly not ironclad. The ide n tifi cation
rested on the victim’s ha v ing seen the defendant for 6 sec-
onds in a well-lit bathroom nearly a year before the photo
lineup. Standard forensic tests comparing characteristics
of the suspect’s blood with characteristics derived from
the semen found on the victim suggested that only
Andrews could have committed the offense; but 30% of
the male population of the United States shared these
same characteristics. In short, there was enough evidence
to prosecute, but a conviction was by no means a certainty.

A

A

C

C

G

T

T

TA

TA

T

TA

T

TA

CG

CG

C

C

G

T

T A

T
A

A

A
G C

C

CG

G

GeneDNA

Chromosome

Nucleus

Cell

b F IGURE 1-13

DNA Structure

The long, stringy DNA that makes up
genes is “spooled” or coiled within
chromosomes. If unspooled and
connected, the DNA is a person’s
body would stretch approximately
67 billion miles. (Courtesy National

Institute of General Medical Sciences, 2010)

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14 C H A P T E R 1 T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C R I M I N A L I N V E S T I G AT I O N A N D F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E

However, on learning about the Enderby cases, the pros-
ecutor secured DNA processing of the evidence and
A n drews was co n victed.

DNA Analysis
In 1988 the FBI became the fi rst public-sector crime labo-
ratory in the United States to accept cases for DNA anal-
ysis. 82 Private fi rms also offer DNA testing, including
Orchid Cellmark, with forensic labs in Nashville, Tennessee
and Da y ton, Ohio
Although DNA analysis of blood and other evidence
from humans in criminal investigation cases is widely
understood and used, there was no application of “genetic
fi ngerprinting” to plant evidence in criminal cases until
the 1992 palo verde seedpod case in Phoenix, Arizona. 83
Joggers found the body of a female who had been stran-
gled. At the scene, investigators found a be e per, which
led them to a suspect. The suspect admitted that (1) he
had been with the victim the evening she disappeared,
(2) the victim had been in his vehicle, (3) he and the vi c-
tim had had sex, and (4) he and the victim had struggled.
However, the suspect also mai n tained that the victim had
run off with his beeper when he refused to help her to
get drugs and that he had not been anywhere near the
place the body was found in 15 years. Investigators had
found two seedpods from a palo verde tree in the bed of
the suspect’s truck. A University of Arizona plant genet-
icist was asked to determine if the seedpods came from
a palo verde tree at the scene. The Maricopa County
Sheriff’s Offi ce collected a total of 41 samples of palo
verde seedpods from the crime scene and the surround-
ing region. The geneticist was able to e x actly match the
seedpods from the bed of the su s pect’s truck with those
seized from the crime scene as part of the sample of 41
see d pods. Additionally, none of the 41 seedpods exactly
matched another. This evidence was admitted at the trial.
The defense attacked the evidence, properly arguing that
the fi ndings from a study based on 41 trees had substa n-
tial limitations and did not establish concl u sively that the
suspect could have gotten the seedpods only at the crime
scene. Ho w ever, along with other evidence, the testimony
given by the geneticist had suffi cient weight for the jury
to convict the su s pect.

FIREARMS IDENTIFICATION

Biometric based personal identifi cation grew as several
rival systems. Anthropomorphy lost credibility; Henry’s
system of fi ngerprint identifi cation substantially eclipsed
Vucetich’s, and DNA remains widely used. In contrast,
fi rearms identifi cation moved forward in a series of suc-
cessive steps.
In the United States, the frequency of shootings has
made fi rearms identifi cation extremely i m portant. 84 As a
specialty within forensic science, fi rearms identifi cation
extends far beyond the comparison of two fi red bullets.
It i n cludes identifi cation of types of ammunition, knowl-

edge of the design and functioning of fi r e arms, restora-
tion of obliterated serial numbers on weapons, and
estimation of the distance b e tween a gun’s muzzle and a
victim 85 when the weapon was fi red.
In 1835 Henry Goddard, one of the last of the Bow Street
Runners, made the fi rst successful attempt to identify a
murderer from a bullet recovered from the body of a vic-
tim. 86 Go d dard noticed that the bullet had a distinctive
blemish on it, a slight gouge. At the home of one su s pect,
Goddard seized a bullet mold with a defect whose loca-
tion corresponded exactly to the gouge on the bullet.
When confronted with this evidence, the owner of the
mold confessed to the crime. 87
Professor Lacassagne removed a bullet in 1889 from a
corpse in France. On examining it closely, he found seven
grooves made as the bullet passed through the barrel of
a gun. 88 Shown the guns of a number of suspects, Lacas-
sagne identifi ed the one that could have left seven
grooves. On the basis of this evidence, a man was con-
victed of the murder. 89 However, any number of guns
manufactured at that time could have produced seven
grooves. There is no way of knowing whether the right
person was found guilty. 90
In 1898 a German chemist named Paul Jeserich was
given a bullet taken from the body of a man murdered
near Berlin. After fi r ing a test bullet from the defendant’s
revolver, Jeserich took microphotographs of the fatal and
test bullets and, on the basis of the agreement between
both their respective normalities and abnormal i ties, testi-
fi ed that the defendant’s revolver fi red the fatal bu l let,
contributing materially to the conviction o b tained. 91
Unknowingly at the doorstep of scientifi c greatness,
Jeserich did not pursue this discovery any further, choos-
ing instead to return to his other interests.
Gradually, attention began to shift from just bullets to
other aspects of fi rearms. In 1913 Professor Balthazard
published perhaps the single most important article on
fi rearms identifi cation. In it, he noted that the fi ring pin,
breechblock, extractor, and ejector all leave marks on ca r-
tridges and that these vary among different types of
weapons. With World War I looming, Ba l thazard’s article
was not widely read for some years.
Calvin Goddard (1858–1946, Figure 1-14 ), a U.S. physician
who had served in the army during World War I, is the
person considered most responsible for raising fi rearms
identifi cation to a science and for perfecting the bullet-
comparison microscope. To no small degree, Goddard’s
accomplishments were contributed to heavily by three
other Americans—Charles Waite, John Fisher, and Phillip
Gra v elle—working as a team on fi rearms identifi cation.
In 1925, Goddard joined Waite’s team and upon Waite’s
death a year later, Go d dard became its undisputed driv-
ing force and leader. 92 Like those of many pioneers,
Waite’s contributions are often overlooked. He had been
interested in fi rearms since 1917, and from 1920 on he
visited fi rearms manufacturers to get data on those manu-
factured since 1850. Because of Waite, the fi rst signifi cant

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R E C E N T D E V E L O P M E N T S 15

cataloged fi rearms collection in this country was assem-
bled. Nonetheless, ultimately it was Goddard who raised
fi rearms identifi cation to the status of a science.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

There are many other contributors to the evolution of
investigation and forensic science. For example, in 1910
Albert Osborn (1858–1946) wrote Questioned Documents,
which is still regarded as a defi nitive work. Leone Lattes
(1887–1954) developed a procedure in 1915 that permits
blood typing from a dried bloodstain, a key event in
forensic serology. Although more an administrator and
innovator than a crimina l ist, August Vollmer (1876–1955),
through his support, helped John Larson produce the
fi rst workable polygraph in 1921. Vollmer established
America’s fi rst full forensic laboratory in Los A n geles in
1923.
In 1935 Harry Soderman and John O’Connell coauthored
Modern Criminal Investigation, the standard work for the
fi eld for decades until the publication of Crime Investiga-
tion by Paul Kirk in 1953. A biochemist, educator, and
criminalist, Kirk helped d e velop the careers of many
criminalists.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

The knowledge base, facilities, and capabilities for both
criminal investigation and forensic science are constantly
advancing. A few illustrations are provided here and
other developments are discussed in the appropriate
chapters.

m F IGURE 1-14 Calvin Goddard,

an American pioneer in the study of

ballistics

If fi ngerprints are left on cartridge cases which are
then fi red, attempts to recover fi ngerprints are successful
only 1% of the time using conventional methods. How-
ever, in 2009, a new capability, using Atomic Force Micro-
scope (AFM) imaging, was announced by researchers at
the University of Leicester, England. When fi ngerprints
come into contact with a polished metal surface, such as
a cartridge case, a residue is left behind. This initiates a
reaction that continues even if the print is wiped away,
and the heat from discharge of a bullet actually enhances
the interaction. 93 AFM examinations of fi ngerprints on
polished surfaces produce extremely high-resolution 3-D
images of them ( Figure 1-15 ). AFMs also have applicabil-
ity to the examination of documents.
Research using functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and near infrared
light (NIL) on the brain’s electromagnetic signals has pro-
duced some tantalizing results. 94 Analysis of brain activ-
ity suggests that there are different patterns when people
are lying, and it appears that brain activity can also reveal
whether people are familiar with unpublicized details of
crimes. 95 In United States v. Semrau (2010), a federal dis-
trict court excluded fMRI evidence at trial because it
lacked suffi cient scientifi c support.
There continues to be strong interest in biometrics.
Among the biometric-based methods of identifying indi-
viduals that are in use or on the horizon are hand geom-
etry, iris scans, ear matching, facial and voice recognition,
vein patterns, human body odor, and brain activity. The
use of iris scanning presents some challenges, because the
iris is affected by alcohol, drug use, pregnancy, and aging.
Veins in subcutaneous tissue, the loose fl esh immediately
under the skin, are unique to each person. Several systems
for imaging them are avai l able, such as Vein Viewer and
Palm Secure. Vascular pattern recognition (VPR) is focused
on palm and fi nger subcutaneous veins. Electronic noses
(E-Noses) have many applications, i n cluding food quality
control and air pollution measurement. There is some

m F IGURE 1-15 Atomic Force

Microscope (AFM) image of fi ngerprint

on cartridge case. (Courtesy of University of

Leicester, Forensic Research Centre, England)

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16 C H A P T E R 1 T H E E V O L U T I O N O F C R I M I N A L I N V E S T I G AT I O N A N D F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E

| K E Y T E R M S

anthropometry

Bertillon, Alphonse

biometrics

Bobbies

Bow Street Runners

dactylography

deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

Enderby cases

Fielding, Henry

Fielding, John

forensic science

Galton, Francis

Girard, Stephen

Goddard, Calvin

Goddard, Henry

Gross, Hans

Henry, Edward

investigator

Kirk, Paul

Larson, John

Lattes, Leone

Locard, Edmond

Metropolitan Police Act (1829)

Mulberry Street Morning Parade

National Academy

National Crime Information Center

(NCIC)

O’Connell, John

Osborn, Albert

palo verde seedpod case

Peel, Robert

Pinkerton, Allan

“police spies”

Popay, Sergeant

rogues’ gallery

Scotland Yard

Soderman, Harry

Vollmer, August

Vucetich, Juan

West case

| R E V I E W Q U E S T I O N S

1. What is the most fundamental purpose of
investigation?

2. What are four other objectives of investigation?
3. Who were the Bow Street Runners, and of what

historical importance are they?
4. Why did the British public object to the use of

detectives after enactment of the Metropolitan
P o lice Act of 1829?

5. Why did the profession of detective in this country
basically evolve in the private sector?

6. Of what signifi cance is the work of Pinkerton and
his National Dete c tive Agency?

7. What is a rogues’ gallery?

8. Allan Pinkerton and J. Edgar Hoover have what
similarities?

9. What is anthropometry, and why was it abandoned
in favor of dactylography?

10. What are the milestones in the development of
dactylography?

11. Why does the Henry classifi cation system enjoy
greater use than Vucetich’s sy s tem?

12. What are the different human sources of DNA
material identifi ed in this chapter?

13. Of what signifi cance is the palo verde case?
14. What are the milestones in the development of

fi rearms identifi cation?

| I N T E R N E T A C T I V I T I E S

1. Research your local, county, and state police agen-
cies. Do these agencies have a criminal investiga-
tion unit? Do “general investigators” investigate
all types of crimes? Or, in contrast, is there investi-
gative specialization—for example, a homicide
unit? How many investigators are a s signed to such

units? Do offi cers have to meet a certain criteria
to be assigned to these units? How are offi cers
selected? Is there any history on the creation of
these units?

2. Find out more about the FBI’s Biometric Center of
Excellence (BCOE) by visi t ing www.biometriccoe.gov .

evidence that E-Noses are effective in detecting and clas-
sifying human body odor. In 2006, in Nanjing, China, the
Chinese government began gathering an odor database,
reporting success in using it to solve cases.
“Biometric signatures” also receive research attention.
Although handwriting analysis has long been used,

examples of applications in development include identi-
fying computer users by the pattern, speed, and rhythm
of their keystrokes and gait or walking analysis, which
presents analytical problems, because gait can be dis-
guised or diffi cult to discern if long, loose-fi tting clothing
is worn.

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