Review: Clues and Crime: The Science of Criminal Investigation
| Published date | 01 October 1933 |
| Date | 01 October 1933 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3300600425 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
has been demonstrated many years ago to the finger print experts by the
present reviewer
that
aburglar say, who liked to take sufficient trouble,
might well leave some other individual's finger prints on
the
objects which
he has to handle when breaking into a house.
Mr.
Brewster has long been in touch with Mr. A. S. Osborn of New
York, the second edition of whose book on Questioned Documents we noticed in
these columns (Vol. VI. No. I), and this goes to show that the methods advo-
cated in Contested Documents
and
Forgeries are modern and scientific.
The
author has his own opinions and ways of giving information, and there are
some very original suggestions such as the ' spider's web test
plates'
for
Indian scripts and for the easy examination of finger prints.
Important chapters deal with ' Handwriting Development,' , Pens, Ink
and Paper,' ,Contested Writing and
Forgeries'
and'
Technical Evidence.'
Mr. Brewster has found that advocates do not always make the most of the
evidence which the expert has brought forward and suggests in the last
mentioned chapter a line of examination, while he devotes a special one with
more than thirty sub-headings to ' Cross Examination.'
The
disquisitions on
'Alleged
reasons for disparaging handwriting
testimony'
and on
the'
unreliability of lay witnesses' should be studied by
all those who have to decide cases in which doubtful documents
playa
part.
There
are many points of general interest in the book.
It
is found, for
instance, that heredity plays little if any part in the development of hand-
writing and
that
the likeness which undoubtedly exists sometimes between
the manuscript of parents and children is due to copying on the part of the
latter.
Like the late Mr. W. J. Kinsley, awell-known American expert whom
Mr.
Brewster mentions in another connexion, he advocates a clearly written
signature, and he thinks
that
people with a surname of only one syllable
should write their Christian names in full so as to make imitation by a forger
more difficult.
It
is always worth while to see what an expert who has devoted many
years of his life to the study of handwriting thinks
of'
Graphology.' Mr.
Brewster says very emphatically that handwriting is quite unreliable as an
indication of personal character.
It
may give broad indications of slovenli-
ness or neatness
but
it is puerile to say
that
a person is dishonest because he
leaves some of his letters open at the bottom. Mr. Brewster considers
graphologists, who pose as consultants to advise employers concerning the
honesty or dishonesty of applicants for employment, to be particularly dan-
gerous, and he goes on to say it is simply amazing
that
the means of livelihood
of anybody should be at the mercy of charlatans of this type.
CLUES
AND
CRIME:
THE
SCIENCE
OF
CRIMINAL
INVESTI-
GATION.
By
HENRY
T.
F.
RHODES.
(John Murray.) 6s. net.
THE first sentence of the preface states that the aim of this book is to give
, an historical account of the progress of the application of scientific methods
to the detection of crime.' Mr. Rhodes' volume, however, is primarily
intended for the general reader, and
the'
more or less
popular'
treatment of
the subject, confessed to in the preface, makes it impossible to regard the
book as a very serious contribution to the literature of criminal investigation.
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