Allan Pinkerton

He became the first detective of the Chicago

Police Department in 1849/ America's most
famous private investigator.

Alphonse Bertillon

Founder of criminalistics/ The founder of

criminal identification by body
measurement.

Anthropometry

A system of criminal identification developed

by Alphonse Bertillon based on 11
measurements of the human frame.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution,

which through judicial interpretation guide the
actions of criminal investigations.

Bow Street Runners

An early group of English criminal

investigators who operated from a court
located on Bow Street in London.

CID

The Criminal Investigation Department/ a

team composed in 1877 of the Investigators
of the Scotland Yard

Criminalistics

The application of many fields of natural

science to the detection of crime.

Detective

An investigative law-enforcement
officer

Eugene Vidocq

Criminal turned Paris investigator/ Criminal turned Paris investigator/

A notorious thief-catcher and former convict. He based his operations in
Paris and was active some 80 years after the death of Jonathan Wild. He
and his team operated with the complete sanction of the police while
Wild's did not.

Fourteenth Amendment

An 1868 Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

that, in time, applied due process
requirements to state criminal cases.

Industrial Revolution

An economic phase characterized by intense

industrial development in urban areas and
related population shifts to the cities.

Jonathan Wild

A master criminal who then became London's most

effective criminal investigator in the 1720s. Wild's actions
made popular the logic of employing one who was a thief
to catch a thief.

Metropolitian Police Act

English legislation that led to the

development of the London Metropolitan
Police.

Modus Operandi

The specific method of operation employed by a

criminal during the commission of an offense, that is
likely to be repeated to form an identifiable pattern.

Parliamentary Reward System

An early English practice in which officials were paid

for the apprehension and prosecution of criminals,
thus encouraging a high arrest and conviction rate.

Polygraph

An instrument that measures certain physiological

changes of the body triggered by emotional responses to
specific verbal questions; generally used to determine
deception.

Portrait Parle

An early method of criminal identification in

which the human head and facial features
were described in a detailed manner.

Thief-Taking

An early method of criminal investigation and

apprehension that was based on the premise that only a
criminal could successfully apprehend another criminal.

Thomas Byrnes

American founder of criminal modus operandi/

Chief of detectives in New York City/ One of the
most famous invesitgators of the 19th century

Will West Case

A case in which two inmates so closely resembled each

other in physical characteristics that the traditional
Bertillon method of identification was discredited.