"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.
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