In 1894 a Special Committee was appointed to examine and report upon the
different systems of identifying criminals, and they recommended that the
anthropometric system was the most satisfactory for preliminary
classification, but that for further grouping the finger-print method gave
the best results. Accordingly a system including both methods was adopted
in this country and was in use until 1901, when, as is mentioned below,
the present system of finger-print identification was introduced.
The success of M. Bertillon's system in France speedily led to its
adoption in other countries. Early in 1892 it was introduced into India,
and within six years upwards of a quarter of a million of classified cards
had been collected.
The chief difficulty was found to be in the classification of the
measurements for reference, and a committee was accordingly appointed by
the Indian Government to report upon the system. Their report stated that
the finger-print method was preferable to the anthropometric system in
simplicity, rapidity and certainty.
Since that time (June, 1897) the finger-print method has been in use in
India for the identification of criminals.
The system of identification by bodily measurements, which has now come to
be known as _bertillonage_, was first introduced as a method of police
registration in Paris in 1882. During the first year of its employment it
detected forty-nine criminals giving false names, while in the following
year the number rose to 241.
In 1889 M. Bertillon stated that there had not been a single case of
mistaken identity since the system had been introduced, and that in the
previous year 31,849 prisoners had been measured in Paris, 615 of whom
were in this way recognised as former convicts, while fourteen were
subsequently recognised in prison. Of the latter, ten had never previously
been examined, so that the failures were only four in 32,000, or one in
8,000.
The system, as described by M. Bertillon himself in a pamphlet on _The
Identification of the Criminal Classes_, consists in taking the
measurements of the body structure of each individual. Although such
measurements might be indefinitely extended, the number is usually
restricted to twelve, including the height, length and width of the head,
length of the middle finger, of the foot, etc.
These measurements are rapidly taken with standard instruments by a
special staff, and are recorded upon a card upon which are pasted full
face and profile photographs of the prisoner.
The data obtained enable the photographs to be classified into different
groups of short, medium, and tall men, and these, again, may be
subdivided into groups of short, medium, and long heads, while further
subdivisions are afforded by the width of the head, width of the arms
outstretched at an angle of the body and so on. The colour of the eyes
affords the means for a further subdivision, while special birthmarks or
peculiarities differentiate the individuals still further.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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