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

• 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

o Nationally, there are approximately 1.3 million prison inmates

o About 6% of the population being women. 

o For every 100,000 white males, 461 are imprisoned

o While for every 100,000 black males, 3,250 are imprisoned

 

More Prison Stats

• 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

o The increase in the imprisonment of drug offenders accounts for 75% of the increase in prison populations.

o Most people sentenced to state prisons have been convicted of violent crimes (46%). 

o Property crimes account for about 24%.

o 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.

• 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