Suspect Identities – A History of Fingerprints & Criminal Identification: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification

“No two fingerprints are alike |” or so it goes. For nearly a hundred years fingerprints have represented definitive proof of individual identity in our society. We trust them to tell us who committed a crime | whether a criminal record exists | and how to resolve questions of disputed identity. But in Suspect Identities | Simon Cole reveals that the history of criminal identification is far murkier than we have been led to believe. Cole traces the modern system of fingerprint identification to the nineteenth-century bureaucratic state | and its desire to track and control increasingly mobile | diverse populations whose race or ethnicity made them suspect in the eyes of authorities. In an intriguing history that traverses the globe | taking us to India | Argentina | France | England | and the United States | Cole excavates the forgotten 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 only after a long battle against rival identification systems. As we rush headlong into the era of genetic identification | and as fingerprint errors are being exposed | this history uncovers the fascinating interplay of our elusive individuality | police and state power | and the quest for scientific certainty. Suspect Identities offers a necessary corrective to blind faith in the infallibility of technology | and a compelling look at its role in defining each of us.