History of CSI

  • Fingerprinting is Developed

    William Herschel is a man who ran across the uniqueness of every person's own fingerprint. He found this out when he grew tired of people saying they did not sign certain papers that they obviously did sign. He started to make them put their fingerprints by their signature and that is when he decided to study more into them.
  • Fingerprinting Criminals Starts

    There was an Argentinian policeman named Juan Vucetich that first suggested that criminals should all have their fingerprints taken in order to easily identify suspects in a crime.
  • First Crime to Utilize Fingerprinting

    There was a woman that murdered her two sons and then killed herself in order to make it look like it was someone else. The fingerprints used were how they figured out the woman was the killer and not someone else.
  • Fingerprints Entered Into a Computer Database

    This was the time where everyone's fingerprints were beginning to end up in a collective digital database. This allowed CSI to be easier when they needed to identify prints.
  • DNA Testing is Developed

    A man by the name of Sir Alec Jeffreys is the one to fully develop DNA testing. With the use of X-Ray film, he made it possible to spot the differences in the DNA of two different people.
  • DNA is Used for the First Time in CSI

    Before it was used in crime scene investigation, DNA was mainly used to tell who the fathers of certain children were. The first crime that DNA was used in was the rape crime committed by Tommy Lee Andrew. They matched DNA through blood kits and samples of semen on the victim.
  • Justice for All Act

    The act was signed by President George Bush and made it to where there was more funding and allowance for DNA utilization in the judicial system. Along with this, it also allowed felons that were convicted of a crime to request a DNA test in order to prove their innocence.