CRIM 355 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: American Civil War, Ossification, Forensic Anthropology
Document Summary
In past- criminals identified by brand, tattoo, disfigurement. Also told others that this is a criminal . Old forms of id physical description. France, 1800, vidocq made men memorize faces of criminals only way of knowing if someone had a record. Louis bertillion seriation to describe population e. g. height, weight, eyes, colour, etc. divided each into levels, average, below avg. , very below avg. , above avg. , etc. 14 characteristics, several ranks for each unlikely any two people should rank the same. 1879 took it to head of surete turned down. 14 characteristics, 5 ranks chance of any 2 people having the same in all 14 characteristics extremely unlikely! Many are genetically linked so inherited together e. g. blond hair and blue eyes. So probability of 2 people with same description could be quite high. Ridged skin patterns on fingers, hands and feet. Mostly environmental not genetic so all are unique even identical twins. Must identify victim or will never id killer.