History of forensics

Death of an emperor

44 BCE

Julius Caesar was assassinated

Who determines cause of death

400

Medical experts must be the ones to determine the cause of death in crimes

Finger Prints

600

The use of fingerprints weer used for the first time to identify others

First Forensic book

1248

First forensic science manual published by the Chinese.

King Richard

1250

King Richard invented the idea of using coroner to investigate questionable deaths.

Reporting cases

1600

First pathology reports published

Physical evidence used in a criminal case

1774

Evidence was a torn edge of newspaper in a pistol that matched newspaper in his pocket which led to a murder conviction

Investigating poisoning

1806

Valentin Ross developed a method of detecting arsenic in a victim's stomach, thus advancing the investigation of poison deaths.

More physical evidence discovered to work in forensics

1816

Clothing and shoes of a farm laborer were examined and found to match evidence of a nearby murder scene.

Chemical testing utilized

1836

James Marsh uses chemical processes to determine arsenic as the cause of death in a murder trial.

First uses of photos in identification

1854

The first city in the US to use photos for criminal identification was San francisco

Fingerprints found to be unique

1880

Henry Faulds and William James Herschel publish a paper describing the uniqueness of fingerprints

Sherlock Holmes and the coroner

1887

Coroner's act established that coroners' were to determine the causes of sudden, violent, and unnatural deaths

First fingerprint ID used in crime

1892

Juan Vucetich, an Argentinean police officer, is the first to use fingerprints as evidence in a murder investigation.

Investigations into blood markers

1901

Human blood grouping, ABO, discovered by Karl Landsteiner and adapted for use on bloodstains by Dieter Max Richter.

Learning about forensics

1909

First school of forensic science founded by Rodolphe Archibald Reiss, in Switzerland.

Hair now used in forensics

1910

Victor Balthazard and Marcelle Lambert publish first study on hair, including microscopic studies from most animals.

Guns are unique

1912

Victor balthazard bullets have markings from individual guns

Crime labs built

1923

First police crime lab established in Los Angeles.

Crime experts build lab

1932

FBI establishes its own crime laboratory, now one of the foremost crime labs in the world

Lie detection

1939

Prototype polygraph, which was invented by John Larson in 1921, developed for use in police stations.

Voice recording, used as evidence

1960

Voiceprints began to be used in investigations and as court evidence from recordings of phones, answering machines, or tape recorders.

First national crime system

1967

FBI established the National Crime Information Center, a computerized national filing system on wanted people, stolen vehicles, weapons, etc.

Advanced manual fingerprints

1975

First fingerprint reader installed at the FBI

DNA technique for unique ID

1984

DNA fingerprinting techniques developed by Sir Alec Jeffreys.

DNA catches the criminal

1987

Scientist used DNA to catch a criminal, Tommy Lee Andrews

DNA evidence certified

1996

National Academy of Sciences announces DNA evidence is reliable.

Fast fingerprints

1999

FBI makes automated fingerprint inquiry responses heaps faster

Faster DNA IDs

2001

Technology speeds up DNA profiling time

Footwear detection system

2007

Britain's Forensic Science Service develops online footwear coding and detection system. This helps with identifying footwear marks