1. A Brief History of Forensics

2. 8 th Century BC Chinese use fingerprints to identify authors and artists.

3. Chinese crime scene

4. 100 AD Rome Roman attorney Quintilian use bloody palm prints from a crime scene to prove the innocence of a wrongly accused suspect

5. 1686 Marcello Malpighi described the characteristics of fingerprints

6. 1784 First recorded use of evidence matching used to convict a murderer, John Toms. A newspaper found with his pistol and additional fragments in his pocket were matched.

7. 1835 Henry Goddard of Scotland Yard use a bullet comparison to solve a murder. He traced a flaw in the bullet’s shape to the pistol of a suspect.

8. 1877 First article published in Scientific American suggesting that fingerprints might be used to identify a criminal.

9. 1880 Henry Faulds, a physician in Tokyo, used fingerprints to clear an innocent man and identify a burglar.

10. 1883 French criminologist, Alphonse Bertillon developed a system of body measurements to identify criminals.

11. 1889 Alexandre Lacassagne, University of Lyon, matched individual bullets to specific gun barrels.

12. 1891 Hans Gross, University of Austria, publishes first book on using physical evidence for solving crime

13. 1896 First fingerprint classification system published by Sir Edward Henry. He was later appointed the director of Scotland Yard (1901).

14. 1901 First official use of fingerprints in the United States (New York City Civil Service Commission).

15. 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt establishes the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

16. 1910 First crime lab established at the University of Lyons.

17. 1916 Detective Albert Schneider used a vacuum tool to collect trace evidence. Microtrace® Labs Today

18. 1921 First polygraph developed

19. 1924 First US Crime lab established in Los Angeles, California.

20. 1930 FBI sets up national fingerprint file for the United States.

21. 1950 America Association of Forensic Sciences (A.A.F.S.) is founded in Chicago.

22. 1974 Electron microscope technique developed for the detecting of gun shot residue (GSR).

23. 1977 The FBI introduces the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). This system allows the computerized scan of fingerprints.

24. 1984 Sir Alec Jeffreys develops DNA profiling.

25. 1986 The first use of DNA fingerprinting in the solving of a double murder in England.

26. 1987 DNA profiling leads to the conviction of Tommy Lee Andrews, a violent criminal, in Orlando, Florida.

27. 1998 FBI database link law enforcement agencies throughout the United States.

28. Barry Scheck has help free several individuals falsely accused.

29. Although DNA evidence is compelling, less than 15% of cases are solved by using it. Basic other evidence including fingerprints is still the mainstay of evidence.

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31. The End