"Every measurement slowly reveals the workings of the criminal. Careful observation and patience will reveal the truth."
—Alphonse Bertillon, French criminologist.
Alphonse Bertillon was not impressed with the way things were; he sensed it was time for something new, something better.
After many years, this mid-19th century Parisian, who had drifted through most of his life, assuming many different roles, but never discovering that which suited him especially well, found himself, in March of 1879, positioned as a low level clerk in a Paris police station. It was arguably forgettable work, copying and filing documents all day. However, because he had been expelled from school earlier in his life and developed no other marketable skills along the way, it was the best position Alphonse Bertillon could presently hope for.
While this inauspicious beginning did not seemingly hold much promise for the future, something would occur to Bertillon during his time in this position which ultimately changed the course of his life and the course of the criminal justice system around the world.
Running In The Family
Bertillon was not a credentialed statistician, but it seems the trait, along with the interest, had been transferred through the blood of his family. His father, Louis Adolphe Bertillon, was a statistician and medical doctor by trade, who also had a keen interest in engineering. The senior Bertillon engaged his curiosity by purchasing and fashioning all sorts of instruments which he used to take various measurements of the human body. Alphonse’s younger brother, Jacques, who had also been educated to be a physician, had also found a calling in statistical analysis. Even Alphonse’s grandfather had engaged in collecting data, working as a demographer and authoring a book on human statistics.
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| Louis-Adolphe Bertillon (public domain image courtesy of Wikipedia) |
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| Jacques Bertillon (public domain image courtesy of Wikipedia) |
So, it may be no surprise that Alphonse, who must have appeared to be a bit of lost soul to friends and family, found a calling in his desire to do something about the disorganization he found around him as he began his new career in Paris law enforcement.
During the daily course of his work at the Paris Prefecture of Police, Bertillon was responsible for filling out and copying forms. As time went by and he became more familiar with the bureaucratic workings inherent in his job, Bertillon came to believe that the system within which he labored was both inefficient and unreliable. While there were an abundance of records being created and collected concerning the men and women who were arrested and brought into the police station day in and day out, there was no systematic organization to it. What was worse to Bartillon’s sense of order was the fact that there were no - or at least, not enough - standardized procedures in place for the processes that did exist.
Bertillon also discovered that this lack of a system extended to the process of creating reliable identifying information for the criminals who entered the Paris penal system at that time. The process of creating this information was ad hoc at best and promising new techniques, such as photography, while used for some of the records, were poorly executed, with often blurry images, staged in all sorts of odd poses set in front of varying backdrops, with no duplicatable procedures in place with which to effectively proceed.
Somewhere in this morass of paperwork and mediocre execution, Alphonse Bertillon saw an opportunity to bring order where there was chaos and to introduce what to him was a revolutionary way to identify and track the seemingly endless stream of both petty and serious criminals who regularly found their way into the Prefecture.
As is so often the case with revolutions, it was the work of those who came before him, which pointed the way forward for Bertillon.
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| (public domain photo courtesy of Wikipedia) |
Lambert Quetelet
(February 22, 1796 - February 17th, 1874)
Lambert Quetelet, a Belgian biometrist and founder of the science of anthropometry, was the first person to put forth the idea that there were no two humans who possessed the same exact body measurements. It was in this seemingly innocuous finding that Bertillon found inspiration to put forth an idea which would create an entirely new way of identifying and tracking known, unknown and repeat criminal offenders. Bertillon came to the conclusion that, if Quetelet was correct, then it should stand to reason that he could create a standardized set of exact body measurements of criminals which could then be used as permanent identifiers for each of these particular individuals.
When Bertillon put forth the idea to his superiors in October of 1879, it was quickly rejected, first by the Prefect of Police, Louis Andrieux, who found the system incomprehensible; then as useless by the man who the report was passed along to, Gustave Mace, head of the Police Prefecture. No doubt a bruising setback, Bertillon would have to wait another three long years before he was given an opportunity to test out his nascent theory. It was then that Louis Andrieux was replaced by Jean Camecasse, who, under some pressure from Bertillon’s father, relented and gave Alphonse a short three month period, from December 1882 until February of 1883, within which to prove his theory. Bertillon had two clerks to assist him and a stack of 1500 cards, which provided descriptions of known criminals. His task was to try and match any of the known criminals on the cards with inmates in the French penal system, using his measurement system as the guide.
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| Record of the Anthropometric Report (public domain photo courtesy of Wikipedia) |
Bertillon got to work immediately, utilizing inmates from the nearby La Sante Prison as his test subjects, taking intricate measurements of specific portions of their bodies.
In order for the system to work according to his mathematical calculations, Bertillon utilized five very specific bodily measurements to gain the critical information the process required -
- head length
- head breadth
- length of middle finger
- length of the left foot and
- length of the cubit (the forearm from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger)
The trials got off to a less than promising start…
After ten long and grueling weeks, Bertillon had achieved le grande totale of exactly zero matches. Sadly for him, it was beginning to look as if his hopes of creating an improved identification system were soon to be terminated, along with his project. Then, on February 29th, 1883, Bertillon came across an inmate whose measurements were a match for a thief who called himself Dupont. As he checked his stack of cards of known criminals, Bertillon came across a man named Martin. Upon further research, it was discovered that this Dupont was in fact the person named Martin, a man who had exactly the same characteristics as those listed on the card. Upon being questioned, Dupont came clean, confessing that he was in fact, Martin.
This success gave Bertillon the proof he needed to show that his system did, in fact, have merit and should be considered for use. By the end of 1884, Bertillonage, as it became known, had identified three hundred prisoners with previous convictions. This impressive accomplishment assured that, at least for a time, the Bertillon system of criminal identification would be the standard by which all other systems were measured.
Fame and Recognition
Eventually, this system of identification which also included a detailed process for accurately creating, sorting and accessing the information contained within it, found its way to law enforcement agencies all over the world and Bertillon, the clerk turned criminologist, became a sought-after expert giving lectures and demonstrating his system to all who wished to see it.
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| A class on the Bertillon system (France , 1911) (public domain photo from Wikipedia) |
Bertillon's fame continued to grow, to the point where he was even mentioned in works such as the Sherlock Holmes book, "The Hound of the Baskervilles", in which Holmes is regarded as the "second highest expert in Europe" after Bertillon.
End of an Era
Of course, as happens with so many creations over the ages, the Bertillon system was soon to be overshadowed and eventually supplanted by a new and still used technology. Fingerprinting, which Bertillon actually knew of and had begun including in his own system, became recognized as an easier, less expensive and very reliable method of individual identification. As this realization took hold for increased numbers of law enforcement agencies around the world, the Bertillon system was quickly dropped in favor of fingerprinting.
Progress in the material world is something which inevitably requires the old to be replaced by the new. This cycle is then repeated, so that what was once new becomes old, to once again be replaced by that thing which is new. While the BertilloIn system of criminal identification was not destined to stand the test of time, it provided a crucial step forward, moving the process of individual identification from a place of disorderly confusion to one of systemic organization.
REFERENCES
Photos -
- (Top photo) A self-portrait mugshot of Alphonse Bertillon (public domain photo courtesy of wikipedia)
Books -
- Feldman, Anthony; Ford, Peter; Yost, Graham - Scientists & Inventors - 1979, J.G. Ferguson Publishing Co. Pages 214 -215
- Lane, Bryan - The Encyclopedia of Forensic Science - 1992, Headline Book Publishing PLC
Online -
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