Please take notes you will have a quiz on these notes next class.

12

The History of Forensic Science & MVPs

1. What is forensic science?

2. What is the goal of FS?

3. How do FS achieve this goal?

4. Sherlock Holmes

5. Alphonse Bertillion

6. …

Summary:

All white text are questions/MVPs/vocab for the left side.All yellow text should be written next to the question/MVP/vocabAll red or blue text is extra info

At the end, wite a 1-2 sentence summary of these notes.

What is Forensic Science?

The application of science to criminal and civil law

What is the goal of FS?

To reconstruct a past event in order to solve the crime

How do forensic scientists achieve this goal?

By using the Scientific Method & Deductive Reasoning

Review of the Scientific Method:

1. Observation

2. Develop a question

3. Hypothesis

4. Experiment

5. Analysis

6. Conclusion

1. You see a crime

2. What happened?

3. What do you think happened? The “Detective Sense”

4. Collect and examine evidence

5. See if evidence matches to a suspect

6. Convict suspect or test again

Scientific Method Test:

• Counterfeit money– Observation– Question– Hypothesis– Experiment– Analysis– Conclusion

“Elementary, my dear Watson”

• Sherlock Holmes: – Fictional detective– Used logic and

observation to solve crime

– Conclusions were “elementary”

– Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• Father of criminal identification

• Bertillionage: taking a series of body measurements to identify someone

Alphonse Bertillion

Mathieu Orfilia

Developed method for classifying and filing fingerprints

Francis Galton

Father of forensic toxicology

Karl Landsteiner

Discovered blood can be grouped

• into different categories: A, B, AB, O

Leone Lattes

Developed a procedure to determine the blood group of a dried bloodstain

Calvin Goddard

• Used a comparison microscope to examine bullets (ballistics)

Albert Osborn Responsible for the acceptance of

documents as scientific evidence by courts

Hans Gross

• Studied and developed principles of criminal investigation

Paul Kirk

• Established criminalistics as an academic discipline (Berkeley)

Edmond Locard

• Believed that every criminal could be connected to a crime by dust particles carried from the crime scene

The exchange of materials between two objects that occurs whenever two objects come into contact with one another

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 clothing, 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 evidence 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 its interpretation can err. Only human failure to find it, study and understand it can diminish its value.”

J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972)Director of the FBI (1924-1972)

• FBI was established in 1905 by Teddy Roosevelt as the Bureau of Investigation

• 1924 National Fingerprint file organized

• 1932 Crime Lab Established• 1935 National Police

Academy formed• 1935 Bureau renamed FBI