Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification

Cole excavates the forgotten global history of criminal identification—from photography to exotic anthropometric systems based on measuring body parts, from fingerprinting to DNA typing. He reveals how fingerprinting ultimately won the trust of the public and the law after a long battle against rival identification systems.

Table of Contents:
Contents Prologue: Jekylls and Hydes 1 Impostors and Incorrigible Rogues 2 Measuring the Criminal Body 3 Native Prints 4 Degenerate Fingerprints 5 Fingerprinting Foreigners 6 From Anthropometry to Dactyloscopy 7 Bloody Fingerprints and Brazen Experts 8 Dazzling Demonstrations and Easy Assumptions 9 Identification at a Distance 10 Digital Digits 11 Fraud, Fabrication, and False Positives 12 The Genetic Age Epilogue: Bodily Identities Notes Credits Acknowledgments Index

About the Author :
Simon A. Cole is Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at University of California, Irvine.

Review :
For most of the century since it made its courtroom debut, fingerprinting has enjoyed an impeccable reputation for identifying criminals. What jury would acquit a suspect if his prints matched those found at the scene of a crime?...Simon Cole...is one of a small group of people that has started looking at the technique which, above all others, gave forensic 'science' its scientific status. And, surprisingly, he has found it is scientifically and statistically wanting. The Economist Cole's treatment of fingerprinting is...commendable...[He] shows that...court cases...were not quite as singular in ascendancy of fingerprinting over the Bertillon system, but rather added weights that finally tipped the scales in favor of fingerprinting; he is also cautionary about its claim to absolute reliability. Booklist 20010401 Cole's comprehensive...book investigates the tangled intersections of scientific identification and law enforcement...[with] rigorous detail and attention to historical ambiguities...This well-wrought history will be admired by scholars and serious lay readers. Publishers Weekly 20010409 For almost a century, fingerprinting remained one of the most respected tools of forensic science. Only in the early nineties did faith in its reliability begin to erode. In [Suspect Identities], Simon A. Cole recounts how a number of cases involving the New York State Police revealed tampering with fingerprint evidence, as well as the incompetence of many police labs. -- William Cohen New Yorker 20010604 Cole weaves the intriguing tale of how and why people were identified as who they claimed to be. This history begins in the era where identification was largely unnecessary because people did not travel very far and were known in their own communities. As both travel and criminal behavior increased, the need to identify people grew...Cole describes the ancient use of fingerprints up through time until they became commonplace for use in identifying criminals. He presents an excellent account of the problems and controversies surrounding the use of fingerprints for identification, ending with the current issues of using DNA for identification. The illustrative stories are excellent, making this a fascinating trip through identification history. -- J. A. Brown Choice 20011201 Simon A. Cole's well-written and interesting book is a cultural, social, and scientific history of fingerprint identification. It makes the intriguing argument that scientific merit had nothing to do with the acceptance of fingerprints as uniquely good identification evidence. -- Adina Schwartz New York Law Journal 20020207 [A] fascinating, thought-provoking book. Science