Michala Reudter

Introduction to Forensic Science

1350-001
October 13,2015

Aphonse Bertillion
Alphonse Bertillion was a Criminologists and Anthropologist who has been named as one
of the founding fore fathers for Forensic science.1 For his impressive system that set the stage
for the Forensic techniques still used today. Although extremely effective during the end of the
nineteenth and early twenty-first centuries, there were in some cases where Finger Printing
Identification was more accurate at catching the suspects. For his time he came up with a
system that changed the course of Forensic Identification forever. He designed an effective and
organized way to keeping criminal records in order and to catch re-offending criminals.
The early years: Bertillion was born April 23, 1853, in Paris, France. His father was a
very renowned medical professor and statistician. Although there is not much information about
his early childhood or even school years, he did drop out of school and was in the military for
some time. 2 In 1879, at age 26, he started working as a records clerk in the Parisian Police
Department. The job mostly consisting of copying out and filing identification cards and
photographs. He noticed how unorganized the Parisian police were with their records and was
unimpressed with the lacking element of challenge in his job, that he started to create a new
system in his spare time.
Bertillion developed an identification system commonly known as Anthropometry or
Bertillion system or bertillonage. 3 Anthropometry is the identification of individuals by
measurements at different parts of the body.4 His system is made up of four parts that 1)

incorporates a series of measurements including iris color, nose, and ear description. Bertillion
thought that ear shape, size, and lobes were a unique identifier for a person. 2) A detailed verbal
physical description of the body and face called a portrait parle. 3) A face and profile
photograph, what we call a Mug shot today. 4) A detailed inventory and mapping of all
specific marks on the body, such as: scars, tattoos, moles and birth marks.1 In order to
effectively organize all these numbers being recorded, each anthropometric measurement was
broken down into three categories: small, medium, and large. This made it possible to sort the
cards into multiple subdivisions for easier retrieval.
Anthropometry is used in many different fields of medicine. It can be used in
anthropology, engineering and obviously forensic anthropometry.2 This system was useful in the
late 19th century because there was an extremely high rate of repeat offenders. Repeat offenders
are called recidivists. Before Bertillions system it was tremendously difficult to identify
recidivists, because only a name and address was used to book them. People would use fake
names and have old addresses. Combined with an unorganized filing system Parisian Police
were not progressive in keeping repeat criminals off the streets. Using this system allowed the
Police to catch recidivists and could draw harsher punishments because they could correctly
identify these people.2 The criminals name would be filed and then cross referenced with their
criminal record in order to identify them. In 1884, Bertillion was able to test out his system. He
used his method to catch 241 repeat offenders. After getting some notice from other Police
forces Bertillonage was adopted by Police forces in Great Britain, Europe and the Americas.5
Except, this system was hard to put into effect in the different police forces. There were many

factors that went into this system that needed to be controlled. Such as, the measuring tools
needed to be frequently calibrated and maintained, it was labor intensive, the training was
rigorous and took much time, they needed highly motivated and competent technicians and it
was expensive. The police officers often were not consistent with how they were measuring the
criminals. 5
The Bertillion system was the dominate criminal identification system for almost three
decades. One case that disproved Bertillions system was the West Brothers case.6 A man
named Will West was committed to the penitentiary in 1903, when they found his name in the
system, but a man named William West came up. William West was serving a life sentence from
a murder crime committed in 1901. The two men had almost identical measurements and
pictures, almost as if they were twins. Clearly two different people when they looked at their
finger prints though. This is when people believed Fingerprint Identification became more
reliable and accurate than Bertillions system.
Fingerprint Identification was more commonly used, but certain aspects of Bertillions
system was used. Such as the documentation of special features of the body and mug shot
photos. Evidence that peoples measurements changed as they ages only solidified the use of
Fingerprinting techniques. One of his most important contribution to forensics was the
systematic use of photography to document crime scenes and evidence. 6 He developed metric
photography, basically a crime scene sketch, which were measured grids to document the
dimensions of a space and the different objects in that space. In his career he also worked to

further the development of other Forensic Science techniques. Such as, handwriting analysis,
galanoplastic compounds to preserve footprints and other impressions, ballistics and a
dynamometer, which measured the degree of force used in breaking and entering crimes. 6
Bertillion was a very influential man to the Forensic Science field. His work impacted the world
in a progressive way to keep repeat offenders off the streets. He died at the age of 61, in
Mnsterlingen, Switzerland.

Works Cited

1. Pierre Piazza. Alphonse Bertillon and the Identification of Persons (1880-1914),

Criminocorpus [online] published April 4, 2014, viewed Oct. 14, 2015.
Permalink: https://criminocorpus.org/en/ref/25/17248/
2. Cellania, Miss. Alphonse Bertillion and the Identity of Criminals Mental Floss. Mental
Floss, LLC, 21 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Oct, 2015
3. Alphonse Bertillion: French official Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia
Britannica Inc. n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.
4. Saferstein, Richard. Forensic Science: From the Crime Scene to the Crime Lab. Library of
Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pearson Education, Inc. 2009
5.

Visible Proofs: Forensic views of the body: Galleries: Biographies: Alphonse Bertillion
(1853-1914) U.S. National Library of Medicine. 16 Febuary 2006. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.

6.

Bertillion system of Criminal Identification. National Law Enforcement Museum

Insider. n.p. Vol. 3, issue 9. Web. 12 Oct 2015.