The Bertillonage System, developed toward the end of the 19th century, was a very precise means of determining identity based on measurement, though it did not last long.

Modern technology has provided fairly effective systems of personal identification.

Fingerprint analysis remains an important tool which provides an invaluable service to detectives and the writers of television crime dramas.

DNA analysis provides an invaluable technique of establishing identity based on even the scarcest of clues.

These methods weren’t always available, of course.

Prior to the time when fingerprinting really began to catch on in the beginning of the twentieth century, there were other methods which, while they may no longer be in use, were still rather effective tools for law enforcement officers worldwide.

Early Forensic Science

Throughout much of history, there was not much in the way of “forensic science” to speak of. A good physical description and eye witness testimony was about as good as it got. Furthermore, after a criminal was caught, there was absolutely no way to tell if this person had a history of offense, or if he was wanted for crimes elsewhere. Thus, it was nearly impossible to enforce any laws regarding repeat offenders of any crime.

It is this latter problem, especially, for which a remedy was sought during the latter years of the nineteenth century.

It was during this time that a system was finally instituted which sought to identify criminals by items other than their names and vague physical descriptions (both of which could rather easily be changed).

It was a system originally developed in 1890 by a records clerk in a Paris police station named Alphonse Bertillon, who in his spare time became fascinated with researching a subject known as biometrics, which deals with the identification of humans based on physical or psychological traits.

Bertillon thus began developing what became known as anthropometry as a means of identification, the name of which was later changed to Bertillonage in his honor.

Bertillonage was based on the observation that adult bones tend not to grow substantially after the age of twenty, so by measuring the major dimensions of a person’s body, one might have an accurate and unique method of identification.

Bertillon developed a very strict system of measurement to be instituted first in France, though it quickly spread across the world. The officers would measure and catalogue eleven different features; the size of the head, arms, legs, feet, hands, fingers, etc… into a very simple numerical system which were then catalogued in such a way as to make it easy to match the measurements up once again if that person was ever caught again and needed to be identified.

Bertillonage was quite successful throughout the world for more than a decade. Thousands of repeat offenders (estimates extend up to more than 12,000, in fact) were said to have been brought to justice based on this method of identification which may seem rather crude and antiquated on the surface yet has been estimated by scientists to possess an accuracy rate of 286,435,456 to 1, which means that nearly three hundred million people would have to be catalogued in order to find two who possessed roughly the same dimensions.

Errors in the System

It is odd, considering the odds against it, that in 1903 this very thing happened – and in very close proximity. Two different persons were found to possess the exact same measurements (factors of human error taken into account), both of whom were inmates at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The very next day the prison officially switched to fingerprinting for their identification needs, and the rest of the world was not long in following.

In addition to a slightly higher rate of accuracy, fingerprinting also was found to possess a more “preemptive” ability to catch prisoners. Rather than being able to only identify repeat offenders, fingerprints could be taken from crime scenes and then compared to records kept by the authorities. Of course, this was made infinitely simpler by the introduction of computers many decades later.

Legacy of Bertillonage

So Bertillonage didn’t last too terribly long in the world, but it certainly was rather effective while it did. One might argue that its short lifespan is not so much a testament to the systems failures, but rather is a testament to the sheer superiority and simplicity of the fingerprinting method.

Some argument against anthropometry can be made, however, by looking at some of the abuses to which it has led over the years – abuses surely not intended by either Bertillon or the other pioneers of the field in the 1890’s.

The Nazis, for instance, relied heavily on a pseudo-science known as craniometry, which measures the dimensions of the human skull, in order to differentiate between Aryans and Jews and to justify their racism.

Likewise, skull measurements were used by the British in the 19th century to explain why the Irish and Africans were lesser species. These are only a couple of the many examples of how something as simple as a measurement of a skull can lead to rather terrible behavior on the part of humans.

Today, anthropometry is still utilized, but mainly for research purposes. Demographers and anthropologists continue to study the different sizes and proportions of people around the world and throughout history in order to gain a better understanding of people in general.

If only for this, Alphonse Bertillon should be thanked. Perhaps his name has been all but forgotten in the lore of criminal justice, but his legacy continues to live on.

References:

“Alphonse Bertillon and Ear Prints.” Forensic-Evidence.com.

“The Bertillon System.” New York Department of Criminal Justice Services.