Modern Criminology

The Century of the Detective

By: Jürgen Thorwald The foundation of modern criminology was introduced in 1879 by twenty-six year old Alphonse Bertillon. Prior to the introduction of his anthropological technique known as anthropometry, law enforcement could only identify criminals by name and photograph. Anthropometry is the method of collecting exact measurements of criminals.

Alphonse Bertillon was born in Paris in 1853 to the famous medical professor Louis Bertillon. He drifted through a variety of jobs in England and France after he was expelled from school. He was involuntary forced into the French army in 1875. After being discharged several years later his father was able to get him a low level clerical job with the Prefecture of Police in Paris on March 15, 1879. Having only been on the job just a matter of days as a copyist, he began thinking of a better way to identify offenders and maintain their arrest and criminal records. Thinking there had to be a better to way to classify and file offender’s data according their body sizes and measurements instead of their names, because they would most likely use an alias every time they were arrested. As a criminologist and anthropologist, he created the first system of recording physical

It was first introduced by Joseph A. Faurot, a police detective with the NYPD. While visiting the 1903 St. Louis World’s Fair he became captivated by a fingerprint exhibit. His fascination led him to travel to London to learn more about the craft at Scotland Yard. Simultaneously upon his return, the NYPD decided to implement fingerprinting as its official practice of identifying criminals. In 1911, Faurot was the first to offer fingerprints into evidence during a criminal trial which ended with a conviction. His notoriety led to him being named deputy police commission before his retirement in