IDENTIFYING THE CRIMINAL BERTILLON MEASUREMENTS

Question 1

what concerns about criminal identification was there in Britain around 1850?

Answer 1

increasing concern about abilities of authority to identify habitual criminals. traditional ways of identifying criminals no longer seemed sufficient because of increasing mobility of criminals

Question 2

when did photographing criminals develop? in britain

Answer 2

1840s and 50s (means of identification in prisons)

Question 3

how were habitual criminals catalogged?

Answer 3

photos by crime and name, but it was unreliable

Question 4

what did the habitual criminals act 1869 pass?

Answer 4

passed to create photographic register at metropolitan police that could be used by persons and courts

Question 5

what were some of the faults of identification of habitual criminals ?

Answer 5

many may not have bodily marks, registers only lasted for one year only, and each year it is not published until the next year, chance some first time offenders looked like some habitual criminals and could potentially get harsher sentence

Question 6

what measurements were recorded in Bertillon measurements ?

Answer 6

height, span of arms, height of trunk, length of head, width of head, length of ears, length of feet, length of middle finger, length of forearm, eye colour

Question 7

when did fingerprinting replace Bertillon measurements?

Answer 7

1902, as fingerprints stayed the same unlike rest of body

Question 8

why were vagrants an initial target of photography in Switzerland?

Answer 8

they were a mobile population, Jacob Amiet commissioned a photographer to take photos of vagrants to send copies to other swiss cantons to help fight vagrancy problem

Question 9

how were corpses identified?

Answer 9

Bertillon designed birds eye pics, fingerprinting, metric photography: using grids to document dimensions of objects and spaces (particularly bodies)

Question 10

how was Bertillons reputation damaged?

Answer 10

he got invloved in a political case, his handwriting analysis proved dreyfus was a traitor, he argued that dreyfus had forged his own handwriting to mislead court

Question 11

what were some problems with Bertillon measurements?

Answer 11

measuring tools expensive, needed frequent recalibration and maintenance, also labour intensive