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History Of Forensics

By ak7390

  • Fingerprint ID more common

    Fingerprint ID more common

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Facial sketches matched to photos

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