History of Forensics Summative Flashcards
What is forensics?
Application of science to law
What was the earliest record of applying forensics to solve a crime?
Yi Yu Ji:
- Chinese woman suspected of murder
- Her husband was found dead after a fire broke out.
- Coroner solved the case by noticing that there was no ashes in the husbands mouth
- Coroner burned 2 pigs, one alive one dead: Dead pig had no ashes in mouth while the live one did
What was the earliest record of applying entomology (study of insects) to solve a crime?
- The Chinese lawyer and death investigator Sung Tzu Described a murder
- A stabbing took place
- Day after murder investigator had workers put out their sickles
- Small unseen traces of blood attracted blowflies to only one sickle
Who is Mathieu Orfila?
Father of forensic toxicology
-Published a General System of toxicology.
Who is Alphonse Bertillion?
Devised the first scientific system of personal identification in 1879.
Who is Francis Galton?
Conducted the first definitive study of fingerprints and their classification
-Fingerprint classification system
Who introduced the method of identifying criminals by their fingerprints?
Sir William James Herschel
Who is Leone Lattes?
Developed a procedure to determine blood type from dried bloodstains
Who is Calvin Goddard?
Used a comparison microscope to determine if a particular gun fired a bullet
Who determined two distinct sets of ejector marks for the guns at the St Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago?
Goddard
Who is Albert Osborn?
Developed the fundamental principles of document examination
Who is Walter McCrone?
Utilized microscopy and other analytical methodologies to examine evidence
-Found titanium in paint, providing the Vinland map a forgery
Who is Hans Gross?
Wrote treatise describing application of scientific principles to the field of criminal investigation
-Father of modern criminalistics
Edmund Locard’s Exchange Principle?
Every contact leaves a trace cause by objects contacting each other.
