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Quintilian
Quintilian was a Roman attorney and educator who studied rhetoric in legal cases. According to Roman legend, he used a bloody handprint to acquit one of his clients. He worked in Rome around the 2nd century AD. -
John Toms
In 1784 in Lancaster England, John Toms killed Edward Culshaw with a pistol shot to the head. Toms had a bit of torn newspaper in his pocket that matched with a piece of newspaper in Culshaw's head. The matching paper established Toms as guilty and it was the first time forensic science was used. -
James Marsh
James Marsh was a British Chemist born in 1794 and he was the man who invented the Marsh test for detecting arsenic poisoning -
Henry Goddard
In 1835 Henry Goddard successfully identified a murderer by using the bullet that was found in his body. In old England bullets were produced by melting lead and pouring into a mold, and most people used their own molds at home. -
NYPD
The NYPD stands for the New York Police Department and is one of the oldest departments and the largest police department in the United States. The NYPD has extensive crime scene investigation and lab resources which help with computer crime investigations. -
Henry Faulds
Henry Faulds was a Scottish physician who laid the groundwork for the study of fingerprints in criminology. In japan Faulds noticed the fingerprints left on ancient pots during an archeological dig. He concluded that fingerprints could be used to identify an individual and eventually gave his findings to police forces around the world. -
Alexander Lacassagne
Alexandre Lacassagne spent his life studying forensic science and forensic medicine. He spent much of his time teaching at the University of Lyons in France. He played a significant role in an 1895 trial of Joseph Vacher who raped and murdered a local woman. At the same time, he went into studying individual bullets to barrels of guns, which eventually led to the science of ballistics. -
Will West
The case of Will and William West took place in Kansas during the year 1903. Will West arrived at the penitentiary in Leavenworth and the prison guard had thought she'd seen him before, but he had never been to Leavenworth. The prison guard was correct and that a William West was at the prison. Both men had similar measurements and looked alike so no one could tell the difference. This introduced the importance of finger printing. -
FBI
The FBI was created in 1908 in the United States to protect and defend the United States, uphold and enforce the criminal laws, and provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, and many more partners. -
Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Police Department is the third largest Police station in the U.S. The LAPD have been involved in various events in history like the Black Dahlia murder case and the Rampart scandal. -
AFIS & IAFIS
AFIS is the automatic fingerprint identification system and it's used for sorting, comparing, and exchanging digital fingerprint data. AFIS was created was created in 1924. The IAFIS is the integrated automated fingerprint identification system. This was developed in 1999 by the FBI, and is a faster, more modern than AFIS. -
Walter Specht
The University Institute for Legal Medicine and Scientific Criminalistics, Walter Specht introduced the use of luminol as a presumptive test for blood at crime scenes. This is important because visible blood was usually wiped away from crime scenes taking away evidence. -
Forensic Anthropology
Forensic Anthropology is a special part of physical anthropology that involves applying skeletal analysis and techniques in archeology to solving criminal cases. Forensic anthropology is studied all over the world and works with the FBI to help identify victims and solve cases. -
American Academy of Forensic Science
The AAFS is a society for forensic science professionals located in Colorado Springs. The goal of the AAFS is to promote professionalism, integrity, competency, education, foster research, improve practice, and encourage collaboration in forensic science practices. -
Bells Lab New Jersey
Bells Lab engineers Willard Boyle and George Smith invented Bell Labs and kept it running until 1984 in New Jersey. The goal of the lab was for industrial research and scientific development. The Lab was also a telephone company. -
DNA Evidence first used in a Crime
The first DNA evidence used in the U.S. was for a crime in Orange County, Florida when the circuit court convicted Tommy Lee Andrews of rape after his DNA matched the DNA of blood samples found on the first victims body. The court that was first to rule in favor of admitting DNA evidence came 2 years later in West Virginia. -
CODIS
CODIS is an acronym for the Combined DNA Index System and it's the generic term used to describe the FBI's program of support for criminal justice DNA databases and the software for the databases. -
Innocence Project
The Innocence Project was founded by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at the Cardozo School of Law in New York. The project exonerates the wrongfully convicted through DNA testing and reforms in the criminal justice system to help prevent injustice in the future. -
IBIS
The Integrated Ballistics Identification System was purchased from Forensic Technology in Montreal, Canada. The IBIS technology let professionals use digital computer images of ballistic evidence and assisted crime laboratories with a growing number of fire arm-related crimes. -
Facial Recognition Software
Facial Recognition Software has gained popularity in the 2000's by allowing software to scan peoples faces and test for a criminal background or evaluate a person. In 2009 the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office created a forensic database used to keep track of of photo archives from police officers cameras. This has made cross checking and convicting a felon much easier.
