(1853-1914) French criminologist. He is known for the method he developed to identify criminals.
He was born on April 23, 1853, in Paris. He died on 13 February 1914 in Münsterlingen, Switzerland. He completed his education in England. After returning to France, he started working in the Paris police department in 1878. In 1888, he was commissioned to establish the Department of forensic identification at the same place.
Alphonse Bertillon (22 April 1853 – 13 February 1914) was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who applied the anthropological technique of anthropometry to law enforcement creating an identification system based on physical measurements. Anthropometry was the first scientific system used by police to identify criminals. Before that time, criminals could only be identified by name or photograph. The method was eventually supplanted by fingerprinting.
During Bertillon's lifetime, it was very difficult to identify criminals. The practice of branding criminals was abolished, and the method of collecting pictures of criminals was also unsuccessful. Bertillon, who was greatly influenced by the statistician Quetelet, developed a new identification method based on the facts such as the skeletal structure of the developed people does not change, the dimensions of the human body can be measured and the margin of error can be reduced as a result of repeating these measurements. This method, known as "Anthropometry" or "Bertillonage", was officially accepted in France in 1888 and started to be applied in other countries. Bertillon developed his method, which he started on the basis of eleven body measurements, by adding color differences, scars, blemishes, and signs of disability in the eyes, hair, and skin, adding standardized photographs of criminals to his data. However, due to the difficulties encountered in applying the method to women and physically immature people, it has also started to benefit from fingerprints.
The "Bertillonage method" lost its importance with the widespread use of the branch of science (dactylography) that examines fingerprints. However, Bertillon contributed to the developments in the field of criminology with the photographic techniques he developed.