ABSTRACT

A. The Literary Beginnings ......................................................................... 22 B. Evolution of the Practice........................................................................ 29

1. Physical Evidence............................................................................. 29 a. Biological Evidence — Who? .................................................. 29 b. Nonbiological Evidence — What, How, Where? ................... 35

i. Documents ...................................................................... 35 ii. Physical Match ................................................................ 35

iii. Trace................................................................................. 35 iv. Firearms........................................................................... 36 v. Drugs ............................................................................... 38

2. From Generalist to Specialist (and Back Again)........................... 40 C. Evolution of Concept ............................................................................. 43

1. Transfer ............................................................................................ 43 2. Individualization ............................................................................. 45

a. Biological Evidence .................................................................. 45 b. Nonbiological Evidence ........................................................... 52 c. Uniqueness vs. Common Source ............................................ 54

3. Identification.................................................................................... 54 4. Association ....................................................................................... 56 5. Reconstruction................................................................................. 57

D. The State of the Practice ........................................................................ 62 1. Continuing Themes......................................................................... 62

a. Recognition and Collection of Evidence................................ 62 b. Is criminalistics an Autonomous Scientific Discipline? ........ 64 c. Is Criminalistics a Profession?................................................. 65

E. Summary ................................................................................................. 66 References ........................................................................................................ 67

As with any endeavor, it is useful to study the lessons of the past so that one can at least make new mistakes rather than recycle the old ones. For reasons that remain unclear to the authors, those involved, either integrally or peripherally, in the practice of forensic science seem to insist on repeating the same mistakes over and over again. In this chapter we identify the roots of forensic science, trace some of the history, and highlight the evolution of concepts as well as practice. We hope that a brief reflection on the past will prove useful in guiding the future course of forensic science. Please refer to Appendix A for a Timeline of Forensic Science.