Alphone Bertillon's System

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Alphonse Bertillon was born in Paris on April 24, 1853. He was the son of the distinguished physician, anthropologist, and physician, Louis Adolphe Bertillon (bookrags.com). Young Alphonse was seen as hopeless through his fathers eyes. He often suffered from migraine headaches, and nosebleeds, and was very shy and lacked social skills. However, the young Bertillon was not a complete loss, he was an intellectual who had a thirst for knowledge and shared his father's interest in statistics and anthropology (http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu).
In the year 1875, Bertillon was conscripted into the french army. After several years of armed service Bertillon was discharged. With no higher education or degrees Bertillon struggled with finding employment. In the year 1879, at the age of twenty six, his father arranged a job for him as an assistant clerk in the criminal records office of the Paris Police Department where he would be transferring arrest and criminal background data from various sources onto standard forms (http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu)
Bertillon was reluctant to take the monotonous job. However, he saw this job as a means to gain independence from his father. He eagerly jumped into his work. From early on, Bertillon realized that the collection of criminal records at the Paris Police Department had no organized method of filing. The department had over five million files which included approximately 80,000 mug shots. Bertillon soon realized that because of the vast number of records and the lack of an organized filing system, it was virtually impossible to find and retrieve a specific file, rendering the collection of criminal records completely useless.
Bertillon began searching for a solution to this monumental problem....

... middle of paper ...

...come from the same person. Although, the Bertillon’s system was proved fallible, Bertillon’s many advances in criminology has paved the way for several advances in criminal identification.

Works Cited

"Forensic Science." Forensic Science. N.p., 7 Jan. 2008. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

Gale, Thompson. "Alphonse Bertillon Biography." BookRags. BookRags, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

"Bertillon System of Criminal Identification." Bertillon System of Criminal Identification. NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT MUSEUM, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

"Visible Proofs: Forensic Views of the Body: Galleries: Technologies: The Bertillon System." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 18 July 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2013

Kiger, Patrick J. "Discovery Online, Dead Inventors -- Alphonse Bertillon." Discovery Online, Dead Inventors -- Alphonse Bertillon. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 20

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