The History of Forensic Science

By al_6799
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    First Forensic books

    The first ever known record for medical knowledge
  • Reporting cases

    First pathology reports published
  • Physical Evidence used in crime

    First recorded instance of physical matching of evidence leading to a murder
  • Investigation Poisoning

    German chemist developed a method of detecting a victim's stomach
  • More physical evidence discovered

    Clothing and shoes are now had to be searched to find more evidence to solve a crime
  • Chemist testing utilized

    Use of chemical processes to determine poison in the the victim's blood cells
  • First use of photos to identify

    San Francisco used photography for criminal identification and were the first city to use the method
  • Fingerprints found to be unique

    Francis Galton was the first scientist to identify different types of fingerprints: Plain loop, tented arch, simple loop, central pocket loop, double loop, lateral pocket loop,etc
  • Fingerprints first used

    Juan Vucetich began the first fingerprint files based on Galton pattern types
  • Investigations into Blood Markers

    Human blood grouping, ABO, discovered and adapted for use of blood stains
  • First fingerprint prisoner ID used

    NY state prison planned to use fingerprint identification
  • Learning about Forensics

    The first school of forensic science founded by Rodolphe Archibald Reiss
  • Hair used in forensics

    Victor Balthazard & Marcelle Lambert published first study of hair from animals. Legal to use this method
  • Crime lab built

    First police crime lab established in Los Angeles
  • Lie detection

    Prototype polygraph was invented by John Larson in 1921, developed for use in police stations
  • First National Crime System

    FBI established the National Crime Information Center, a computerized national filing on wanted people, stolen vehicles, weapons
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    Advanced Manual Fingerprints

    FBI established a computerized fingerprint reader
  • Footwear Detection System

    Online footwear coding developed. Helps police to identify footwear marks
  • Facial Sketches

    Michigan State University develops a software that automatically matches hand drawn sketches an stored into the database