Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM)
University of Manchester
Seminar, Tuesday 7 October, 16:00-17:30
Room 2.257, Simon Building, Brunswick Street, Manchester, M13 9PL
https://goo.gl/maps/RTFk4
“A School for Manhunters”: Northwestern’s Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, 1929-1938
Dr. Heather Wolffram (University of Canterbury, NZ)
Northwestern University’s Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (SCDL), America’s first independent forensic crime lab, has attracted attention from historians primarily as part of the story of American lie detection, having been a centre of activity for the development and application of the polygraph as well as the so-called “truth serum”, scopolamine. Undoubtedly, the laboratory’s work in the realm of detecting deception, the fees from which became a crucial source of its income, is a major part of the SCDL’s history and historical significance, but its mission to forensically educate police officers, legal professionals and the general public, which was a key ambition of its founders, alongside providing a world-class forensic science service, is equally deserving of attention. With this in mind, my paper will concentrate on the SCDL as a “school for manhunters”, outlining its ambitious programme to provide America, and more specifically Chicago, with forensic facilities and scientifically-savvy policemen on par with those to be found in Europe. As my paper will argue, however, the transfer of a European model of scientific policing to the United States was not without its hurdles. The American Journal of Police Science, for example, established by the SCDL and intended to introduce American policemen to important contemporary advances in the forensic sciences, had such difficulty in reaching its intended audience that it was rapidly absorbed by the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. The disparagement of the American policeman’s “craft-knowledge”, that seemed implied by the laboratory’s stress on creating scientific detectives, also led to resistance among policemen to the SCDL’s message. Indeed, by 1934, at which time the laboratory was busily promoting its forensic services to the public through exhibits at Chicago’s “Century of Progress” World’s Fair, its educational focus had shifted from policemen to prosecuting attorneys, who for the first time in this year were offered a course on scientific detection methods.
All are welcome and please feel free to pass this announcement on to interested colleagues.
Event co-organised by Ray Macauley and Amy Chambers
http://www.chstm.manchester.ac.uk/newsandevents/seminars/chstm/index.aspx
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