Forensic Science: The 1900s
Early forensic specialists were self-taught. There were no special schools, university courses or formal training. The establishment of a forensic science curricula in 1902 by Swiss Professor R. A. Reiss at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, was one of the first steps towards establishing forensic science as an academic discipline.
It wasn't until the early 1930s that universities began offering courses and degrees in criminalistics and police science. In 1950, the University of California at Berkeley established one of the first academic departments of criminology/criminalistics, and the American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS) was formed in Chicago.
Almost every year in the 1900s recorded an advance in the field. This century saw the:
- Establishment of the popular practice of using the comparison microscope for bullet comparison in the 1920s;
- Development of the absorption-inhibition ABO blood typing technique in 1931;
- Invention of the first interference contrast microscope in 1935 by Dutch physicist Frits Zernike (for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1953);
- Development of the chemiluminescent reagent luminol as a presumptive test for blood;
- Study of voiceprint identification;
- Invention of the Breathalyzer for field sobriety tests;
- Use of the heated headspace sampling technique for collecting arson evidence;
- Development of the scanning electron microscope with electron dispersive X-ray technology;
- Identification of the polymorphic nature of red cells;
- Enactment of the Federal Rules of Evidence (1975);
- Evaluation of the gas chromatograph and the mass spectrometer for forensic purposes, and
- Development of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique for clinical and forensic applications.
The 1980s ended with a few DNA firsts: the use of DNA to solve a crime and exonerate an innocent suspect, in 1986, and, in 1987, the introduction of DNA profiling in the U.S. A criminal court case in which the admissibility of DNA was seriously challenged set in motion a string of events that culminated in a call for certification, accreditation, standardization and quality control guidelines for both DNA laboratories and the general forensic community.
In 1994, the DNA Databank legislation was enacted. By the end of the decade, significant progress had been made in the utilization of DNA analyses in casework in the State Police Laboratory System.