Criminalistics
Criminalistics - is the forensic science of analyzing and interpreting evidence using the natural sciences. Forensic science pertains to all sciences applied to legal problems.
- application of scientific techniques in collecting and analyzing physical evidence in criminal cases. Hans Gross - (1847-1915) An Austrian criminalist who in 1891 first used the term criminalistics. Father of forensic publications. Wrote the book on applying all the different science disciplines to the field of criminal investigation. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - sci-fi author in late 1800. Popularized scientific crime detection methods through his fictional character "Sherlocke Holmes". Mathiew Orfila - (1787-1853) father of toxicology. Wrote about the detection of poisons and their effects on animals. Alphonse Bertillon - (1853-1914) father of anthropometry. Developed a system to distinguish one individual person from another based on certain body requirements. Francis Galton - (1822-1911) father of fingerprinting. Developed fingerprinting as a way to uniquely identify individuals. Leone Lattes - (1887-1954) father of blood stain identification. He developed a procedure for determining the blood type (A,B,AB or O) of a dried stain. Calvin Goddard - 1891-1955) father of ballistics. Developed the technique to examine bullets using a comparison microscope to determine whether or not a particular gun fired the bullets. Albert Osborn - (1858-1946) father of document examination. His work led to the acceptance of documents as scientific evidence by the courts. Walter McCrone - (1916-1915) father of microscopic forensics. he developed and applied his microscopic techniques to examine evidence in countless court cases. Edmond Locard - (1877-1966) father of the crime lab. In 1910, he started the first crime lab in an attic of a police station. Founded the institute of criminalistics in France. His most important contribution was the "Locards Exchange Principle". Locard Exchange Principle 1. Every contact leaves a trace 2. Every criminal can be connected to a crime by particles carried from the crime scene 3. When a criminal comes in contact with an object or person, a cross transfer of evidence occurs. J. Edgar Hoover - father of the FBI. Director of the FBI during the 1930s. His leadership spanned 48 years and 8 presidential administration. Organized a national laboratory to offer forensic services to all law enforcement agencies in the US. Goals of Forensic Science - to determine the cause,location,and time of death. Criminalistics Review Questions 1: Next Page |
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