Signaletic Instructions Including The Theory And Practice Of Anthropometrical Identification

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1896 Edition.

Excerpt from Signaletic Instructions: Including the Theory and Practice of Anthropometrical Identification A very considerable portion of the crimes and wrongs which disturb the order of human society result either directly or indirectly from the apparent impossibility of distinguishing in every case and with unerring certainty one individual from another. It is for this reason, especially, that so many of the professional and habitual criminals who abound in every land have hitherto gone "unwhipt of justice." Men would be unlikely to render themselves liable to the penalties of the law if they knew that, wherever they might flee, their identity could not fail to be discovered. A sure means of identification would not only have the effect of deterring from crime in general, but would evidently nullify all attempts of whatever kind at u substitution of persons. No impersonations of a pensioner, or a missing heir, or a business man could ever hope to be successful. How much more precious still would such a means of identification be if it could be applied, not only to the living man, but to his dead body, even when crushed, mangled or dismembered beyond the recognition of his nearest friends and relatives! The life insurance companies and associations of mutual benevolence, for example, could not be robbed under cover of the pretended death of the holder of a policy, indicated by the finding of a body resembling his, or unrecognizable by ordinary means on account of mutilation, fire or decay, but dressed in his clothes and furnished with his papers. Then, too, those who fell in battle, no matter how mutilated they might be, would not need to be buried in nameless graves, but could be recognized and taken, when peace returned, to lie among their own kin. This powerful instrument of social order is already in existence. One of the most remarkable steps in modern progress is the development of a new form of applied science which has for its object the description of any human being in a manner so complete, certain and characteristic that he can by no possibility ever be permanently confused with any other. Such a description is called a signahnent; the process of making it signalizing, and the body of facts, principles and rules that govern this process the sign a/elic art, signa/ism or sigualetics. The inventor of this truly epoch-making system is Dr. Alphottse Bertillon, a prominent French anthropologist, who in 1882 was made chief of an identification bureau then established in connection with the Prefecture of Police in Paris. Since then the system has come into use in all the police stations, jails and penitentiaries of France, its whole machinery being directed by the central bureau of Paris, over which Dr. Bertillon still presides. As improved and developed with the aid of so many years of practical experience the system has reached a high degree of perfection, and its absolute efficiency is recognized by all competent authorities throughout the world who have investigated its character and history. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

"Cole excavates the forgotten and hidden history of criminal identification--from photography to exotic anthropometric systems based on measuring body parts, from fingerprinting to DNA typing"--Jacket.

The advent of information technology ushered in new forms of political power. Machines play crucial roles in how states see, understand, and act, and scrutiny of these processes lies at the heart of Identify and Sort. It frames debates about IT in world politics, explaining how industrial sorting systems employed by political actors are renegotiating the social contract between individuals and the state. Ansorge takes the reader on a global expedition that tracks the historical antecedents of digital power, from Aztec and Inca rituals, to medieval filing systems, to a grandiose 1930s design for a German registry, to the databases used in US presidential campaigns and how IT is deployed in war and post-conflict reconstruction. Databases are also deployed virtually to record and act upon people who have no publicly visible identification or group consciousness; modern wars and election campaigns are fought on this individualised terrain. The uneven distribution of these technical capacities engenders inequality of access, while rights discourses and legal frameworks forged in an era of mass group discrimination, subjugation, and public resistance lag behind these micro-targeting practices. Rich in examples and ideas, Identify and Sort develops an analytical model and vocabulary to explain the functions and limits of digital power in world politics.