History of Forensic Science

By clarissa

  • Physical evidence used in criminal case

    First recorded instance of physical matching of evidence leading to a murder conviction (John Toms, England). Evidence was a torn edge of newspaper in a pistol that matched newspaper in his pocket.

  • Investigating poisoning

    German chemist Valentin Ross developed a method of detecting arsenic in a victim's stomach, thus advancing the investigation of poison deaths.

  • More physical evidence discovered to work in forensics

    Clothing and shoes of a farm laborer were examined and found to match evidence of a nearby murder scene, where a young woman was found drowned in a shallow pool.

  • Chemical testing utilized

    James Marsh, an English chemist, uses chemical processes to determine arsenic as the cause of death in a murder trial.

  • First uses of photos in identification (1854-59 )

    San Francisco uses photography for criminal identification, the first city in the US to do so.

  • Fingerprints found to be unique

    Henry Faulds and William James Herschel publish a paper describing the uniqueness of fingerprints. Francis Galton, a scientist, adapted their findings for the court. Galton's system identified the following patterns: plain arch, tented arch, simple loop, central pocket loop, double loop, lateral pocket loop, plain whorl, and accidental.

  • Sherlock Holmes and the coroner

    Coroner's act established that coroners' were to determine the causes of sudden, violent, and unnatural deaths. Arthur Conan Doyle also publishes the first Sherlock Holmes story.

  • Criminal features reduced to numerical measurements

    Anthropometry, a system using various measurements of physical features and bones, used throughout the US and Europe. Using the system, a criminal's information could be reduced to a set of numbers.

  • Fingerprint ID used in crime

    Juan Vucetich, an Argentinean police officer, is the first to use fingerprints as evidence in a murder investigation. He created a system of fingerprint identification, which he termed dactyloscopy.

  • Investigations into blood markers

    Human blood grouping, ABO, discovered by Karl Landsteiner and adapted for use on bloodstains by Dieter Max Richter.

  • Fingerprint ID more common

    Galton-Henry system of fingerprint identification officially used by Scotland Yard, and is the most widely used fingerprinting method to date.

  • First fingerprint prisoner ID used

    NY state prison system implemented fingerprint identification.

  • Learning about forensics

    First school of forensic science founded by Rodolphe Archibald Reiss, in Switzerland.

  • Hair now used in forensics

    Victor Balthazard and Marcelle Lambert publish first study on hair, including microscopic studies from most animals. First legal case ever involving hair also took place following this study.

  • Guns are unique

    Victor Balthazard realizes that tools used to make gun barrels never leave the same markings, and individual gun barrels leave identifying grooves on each bullet fired through it. He developed several methods of matching bullets to guns via photography.

  • Crime labs built

    First police crime lab established in Los Angeles.

  • Lie detection

    Prototype polygraph, which was invented by John Larson in 1921, developed for use in police stations.

  • Crime experts build lab

    FBI establishes its own crime laboratory, now one of the foremost crime labs in the world. This same year, a chair of legal medicine at Harvard was established.

  • Voice recording, used as evidence (1960s)

    A sound spectrograph discovered to be able to record voices. Voiceprints began to be used in investigations and as court evidence from recordings of phones, answering machines, or tape recorders.

  • First national crime system

    FBI established the National Crime Information Center, a computerized national filing system on wanted people, stolen vehicles, weapons, etc

  • Advances in residue detection

    Technology developed at Aerospace Corporation in the US to detect gunshot residue, which can link a suspect to a crime scene, and can show how close that suspect was to the gun.

  • Advanced manual fingerprints

    First fingerprint reader installed at the FBI

  • Auto fingerprint system first used

    Royal Canadian Mounted Police implement first automatic fingerprint identification system.

  • Advances in DNA lead to conviction (1983-86)

    DNA fingerprinting led to conviction of Colin Pitchfork in the murder of two teenage girls. This evidence cleared the main suspect in the case, who likely would have been convicted without it.

  • DNA technique for unique ID

    DNA fingerprinting techniques developed by Sir Alec Jeffreys.

  • DNA catches the criminal

    Tommy Lee Andrews convicted of a series of sexual assaults, using DNA profiling.

  • DNA evidence certified

    National Academy of Sciences announces DNA evidence is reliable.

  • Faster fingerprint IDs

    FBI establishes the integrated automated fingerprint identification system, cutting down fingerprint inquiry response from two weeks to two hours.

  • Faster DNA IDs

    Technology speeds up DNA profiling time, from 6-8 weeks to between 1-2 days.

  • Footwear detection system

    Britain's Forensic Science Service develops online footwear coding and detection system. This helps police to identify footwear marks quickly.

  • Detection after cleaning

    A way for scientists to visualize fingerprints even after the print has been removed is developed, relating to how fingerprints can corrode metal surfaces.

  • Facial sketches matched to photos

    Michigan state university develops software that automatically matches hand-drawn facial sketches to mug shots stored in databases.

  • 4 second dental match

    Japanese researchers develop a dental x-ray matching system. This system can automatically match dental x-rays in a database, and makes a positive match in less than 4 seconds.