Fingerprints have served the government for the past 100 years. The first forensic professional organization, the International Association for Identification, was established in 1915 and it was invented just to study fingerprints! Around 1870, French anthropologist Alphonse Bertillon invented a system to measure and record the dimensions of certain bony parts of the body. These measurements were reduced to a formula which would apply only to one person and would not change during his or her adult life.
Beginning in the 1850s, some areas began photographing (or daguerrotyping) criminals as they went into prison. This method became more popular in the 1880s, with the advent of the Kodak camera, which was quicker and easier to use. However, photographs were still not foolprrof--people can drastically change their appearance, and what they do not do, time may. Nonetheless, police spent a great deal of time studying "Rogues Galleries"--thick books of photographs of known criminals in the hopes of being able to identify them in the case of similar crimes occuring near them. (There was apparently very little faith that a criminal wouldn't return to his or her illicit ways).
You have good information about the present and good information on like the middle years, 1800's, but I think that you should put up some information involving earlier years, the 1700's maybe.
ReplyDeleteI think you need more information on how fingerprinting got its start, and what it's used for, other than forensic science.
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