Forensic Science Definition and Scope

What is forensic science? The application of science to those criminal and civil laws that are enforced by police agencies in a criminal justice system. i.e. any application of science to law enforcement Includes geology, chemistry, physics, biology, etc.

Criminalistics – any of the services provided by a crime lab For all intents and purposes, the term is interchangeable with forensic science

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Author of the Sherlock Holmes series Popularized forensic investigation through his novels Used up-and-coming detective methods in his stories, including fingerprinting, serology, firearm identification, and questioned documents

Major contributors to the field Mathieu Orfila (1787-1853) – father of toxicology – the science of dealing with poisons and their effects. Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914) – developed science of anthropometry – the taking of a series of body measurements for means of personal identification (later replaced by more reliable fingerprinting)

Francis Galton (1822-1911) – first thorough study of fingerprints and how to classify them; offered statistical proof of their uniqueness Leone Lattes (1887-1954) – developed procedure for determining the ABO blood type of dried blood stains

Calvin Goddard (1891-1955) – popularized the use of comparison microscopes for matching bullets with weapons Albert S. Osborn (1858-1946) – authored Questioned Documents, a reference book for document examiners

Hans Gross (1847-1915) – wrote Criminal Investigation and Criminology, books detailing how the sciences are incorporated into crime scene investigation

Edmond Locard (1877-1966) – created the first rudimentary crime lab in Lyons, France. Locard’s Exchange Principle – when a criminal comes in contact with an object or person, a cross-transfer of evidence occurs Every criminal can be connected to his/her crime scene by something as small as dust particles carried to or from the scene

First to request that suspects’ clothing be examined in the lab His success led to the establishment of police labs in Vienna, Berlin, Sweden, Finland, and Holland

FBI Under director J. Edgar Hoover, national lab for forensic services established in 1932 FBI lab is now the world’s largest, with 1 million examinations each year