The science of anthropometry - the measurement of the physical parameters of man, gave rise to a new doctrine - habitology. This is the identification of a person by external signs, helping criminologists and police officers in the search and identification of criminals.
The basics of habitology
In a narrower understanding, habitology is the study of special techniques for classifying the external parameters of a person, the features of a portrait forensic examination. The effectiveness of this teaching is justified by three qualities of appearance:
- Originality, i.e. each person is unique and individual. Even if you analyze facial features separately, more than 100 characteristics describing their features will be typed.
- Invariability, or rather, relative stability, because the constitution of a person and his appearance is based on bone-cartilage tissue, which has not changed its structure since 25 years. Features such as the shape of the cheekbones, the severity of the superciliary arches, the height of the forehead, etc. remain unchanged in adulthood. Despite the aging and deformation of the skin and soft tissues, accurate identification of the face is carried out on the skeleton and skull.
- The ability to display on media and in the memory of witnesses.
The totality of information about the appearance of a person is used to solve the following problems:
- Search for unknown criminals hiding from the crime scene.
- The search for well-known criminals who escaped from prison or hiding from law enforcement agencies.
- Search for people missing and identification of the dead.
The fight against lawbreakers has been going on since the emergence of civilizations, and various methods of identification appeared long before the advent of modern techniques of habitology.
Ancient ways of identifying criminals
According to the postulates of Greco-Roman law, criminals and runaway slaves should be marked with a red-hot stigma, which was applied to exposed parts of the body, except for the face. In the Middle Ages, branding in Europe was popular and was part of the standard practice of the Inquisitors. In France, until 1832, the letters “TF” - “travaux forcés”, “forced labor” were burned on the right shoulder of convicts.
In Russia, in order to distinguish criminals from law-abiding citizens, Mikhail Fedorovich first used the stigma. In a decree of 1637, he ordered the word "thief" to be burned out to people convicted of counterfeiting coins. Later, the practice of cutting off the ears, phalanges of the fingers, cutting off the noses was used to more fully determine the degree of crime. The right ear was cut off for the first theft, the left ear for the second, and the death penalty was imposed for the third time. Since the time of Peter I, red-hot iron was replaced with special needles that punched letters on the skin and then rubbed with gunpowder.
In 1845, the exiled convicts were punctured on the arm with the letters “SB” and “SK” (“exiled”, “exiled convict”), and for each subsequent escape a new mark “SB” was added. The stigma was already overwritten with indigo paint or ink.
In 1863, Tsar Alexander II repealed the law on stigmatization, considering it barbaric: some illegally convicted were forced to wear a mark of shame for the rest of their lives.
In the XIX century, after the abolition of uncivilized methods of recognizing criminals in Europe, the science of anthropometry, the progenitor of habitology, arose.
Alfons Bertillon Identification System
Alfon Bertillon was a French forensic scientist who in 1879 introduced his own system of anthropometric measurements of the human face and body, which made it possible to quickly and accurately establish the identity of the criminal. He found that the sizes and shapes of body parts are individual, and compiling a file cabinet with all the physical data and characteristics will help in the search for offenders. The card file was supplemented by drawings and photographs of criminals. He also owns the idea of ​​photographing those arrested in profile and full face.
According to the French police, only in 1884, thanks to the Bertillonage system, 242 people were caught. Basically, file cabinets were used to search for repeat offenders and criminals who escaped from places of detention. The system began to quickly gain popularity throughout Europe, Russia and the West. In the USA, it began to be used in 1887. This method has been successfully used by forensic scientists around the world until 1903.
Case of the "brothers" West
In 1903, a black criminal named Will West was taken to a correctional facility in Leavenworth, Kansas. After taking measurements on the Bertillon system, prison officials found that his physical characteristics and appearance were very similar to those of another black prisoner, William West, who is serving a sentence in the same prison for a murder committed in 1901. Moreover, the police could not prove any relationship between these people.
Another technique, new for that time, was applied to them - fingerprinting, or analysis of the pattern on the fingertips. This story became known throughout the country and even hit the European media. Many forensic experts have come to the conclusion that the Bertillon system is not always effective for accurate identification. The technique needed to be supplemented and finalized. Since then, habitology is not the only technique used for identification.
Habitology in Russia
Bertillon's advanced system began to be actively used by the detective and security police in pre-revolutionary times. In particular, the verbal description of criminals and revolutionaries has become widespread. Thousands of cards with descriptions of people participating in the Bolshevik underground were preserved in the archives of the police. In the Soviet period, forensic scientists continued to improve methods of identifying themselves by external features and attributes.
What does the name of the method mean? The term "habitology" itself came from the Latin "habitus" - the external appearance of a person, and was introduced by the Soviet professor N. Terziev. in the work “Forensic identification of a person by appearance”.
In 1955, the anthropologist Gerasimov, based on the work of Bertillon, developed a new technique for restoring facial features from the skull. In the same period, the USSR first began to use compositional portraits or photobots. In 1984, the Board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs introduced all-union norms and rules on the use of forensic research to identify criminals.
In the late 80s, the KGB and the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs began conducting research to create automatic recognition of offenders. However, the lack of a technical base and material resources slowed down this process. In the late 90's with the spread of modern computers, video cameras, surveillance systems, it became possible to create a common database and automatic identification program.
Classification of external signs of a person
According to forensic habits, a person’s appearance is determined by their own and related elements. Own elements mean anatomical features and properties that are inherently owned by the individual. Related features include elements that are not related to physique, are replaced and complement the look.
Own elements of appearance
These physical attributes include general physical, anatomical, and functional elements.
- General physical elements include gender, height, age, body structure. These external signs in one way or another are reflected in the anatomical and functional attributes of appearance, clothing, therefore they are also called complex.
- Anatomical elements include the features of the figure, the type and shape of the face, the size of the parts of the body, especially the hairline, traces of injuries or tattoos, etc.
- Functional elements are distinguishing features that manifest themselves in the process of activity. These include the tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, gait, special habits, articulation.
Related appearance elements
Additional features of the exterior include clothing, talismans, small underwear and accessories. They are divided by type of material, specificity, frequency of use and method of manufacture.
Rules for describing appearance in habitology
The accepted norms for drawing up a verbal portrait include strict consistency. The description begins with general physical signs, followed by anatomical, functional and related. Pronounced signs are highlighted separately. Moreover, the anatomical features are considered in the front and side positions. A verbal portrait should be complete, specific and not contain unnecessary details.
Human Image
It is possible to fix a person’s appearance with the help of subjective and objective mappings. Subjective refers to descriptions of witnesses and victims, as well as compiled photobots according to their testimonies. The perception of the appearance of one person by another strongly depends on the emotional state, lighting, age, visual memory, etc. Therefore, the information received may not always be complete, reliable and useful for tracing people.
Objective methods of fixing the appearance include photo and video shooting, the latter reflecting the functional signs of appearance. In judicial habitology, masks and casts are used, as well as face reconstruction along the skull of the deceased.
History of the creation of photobots
The visualization of criminals has come a long way, from simple drawings to modern photo-robot programs. To create images and the subsequent search for criminals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, portraits were used from the words of the victims and witnesses. To do this, special artists worked in police stations in Europe, the USA and Russia.
However, if the crime occurred in a public place in front of dozens of eyewitnesses, the testimony and description of the suspect's appearance could vary greatly, depending on the perception of the witnesses. This created a big problem, because often the portraits of artists came out inaccurate and did not contribute to the investigation.
During World War II, Los Angeles police detective Hugh C. MacDonald developed Identikit, the first photo robot system. He analyzed over 500,000 photographs of criminals, then reduced them to 500 basic types. I redrawn parts of the face separately on transparent films and got a set of 37 noses, 52 chins, 102 pairs of eyes, 40 lips, 130 hair lines and an assortment of eyebrows, beards, mustaches, glasses, wrinkles and headgear. Now identification was reduced to a combination of different parts and elements of the face.
In 1961, Detective Scotland Yard first used Identikit to capture the murderer of Edwin Bush. The policeman remembered the identikit compiled by one of the witnesses at the station, remembered the appearance of the suspect and detained a similar man. The confrontation proved the guilt of E. Bush.
In 1970, the Identikit system was replaced by Photo-FIT. Unlike the first version, where linear drawings were used, Photo-FIT consisted of real photographs of various parts of the face. With the development of computer technology, many photobots programs have appeared.
Current trends in the development of habitology
One of the promising modern developments is the combination of standard methods of habitology with biometry. Technologies allow for the establishment of a person’s personality according to the pattern of the retina, the shape of the hands, the pattern of blood vessels, voice, handwriting, etc. Forensic experts increasingly come to the conclusion that a comprehensive study of a person is necessary - not only in appearance, but also in biological and mental characteristics. Examinations and DNA tests are carried out, psychological portraits of criminals are made. Experts agree that habitology is not only a science of external signs. It gives a lot of different information for analysis.
Some experts insist on a careful study of precisely the functional features of a person in identifying a person, because often witnesses cannot remember exactly the details of the figure, signs and type of face shape, but clearly remember the voice, facial expressions, gestures. In the XIX century, the psychiatrist C. Lombroso tried to find a pattern between the external features and the person’s ability to commit a crime. During his lifetime, his scientific works were popular, but in the XX century they began to be compared with fascist ideas about the “superman”. However, the study of habitology at the border with psychology is an urgent task for scientists.
Thus, habitology is a useful tool for solving the tasks of tracing, identifying and capturing criminals.