Notes

When a detective investigates a crime, instead of guessing by how suspicious the suspect looks and what others say, they use traces and clues left behind from the case to come to a conclusion of who could be the culprit. A famous detective novel series, Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle, follows Sherlock Holmes, a clever detective who uses all the information he has and interprets it through forensics. But, he also used his own ways of investigation that hadn’t been used before in real life. Sherlock Holmes influenced modern forensic science in relation to detective work due to his use in fingerprint identification, footprints, and cartology.
One of the most common methods to find clues in forensics and crime investigation is by identifying fingerprints and tracking them to a certain person. In The Sign of Four, a Sherlock Holmes novel, Holmes identified and used fingerprints for his evidence. “"There's the print of Wooden-leg's hand,' he remarked as i mounted up beside him. 'You see the slight smudge of blood upon the white plaster. ” (Doyle 8) This quote shows that Holmes would use the mark of the hand and the content it had on it to confirm that this suspect was really the crime-doer. This may be normal in investigation shows and books, but The Sign of Four was published 11 years before detectives adapted the fingerprint recovery, comparison, and identification process.
Handwriting used to be extremely more relevant than it is today, since in the Victorian times everyone would write letters. Detectives today use it to identify forgeries, psychological profiling, a method used by criminal investigators to develop profiles for criminals, alterations in handwriting due to the influence of drugs, alcohol, duress, exhaustion or illness. Sherlock Holmes used cartography in many of his cases to support his verdict and to lead to other evidence. For example, in The Adventure of the Norwood Builder, Holmes finds a will which is written in three types of ways - good, bad, and terrible. “That it was written in a train; the good writing represents stations, the bad writing movement, and the very bad writing passing over points.(...) this was drawn up on a suburban line, since nowhere safe in the immediate vicinity of a great city could there be so quick a succession of points.” (Doyle 4) Holmes could tell certain information about a person, where they were, and what was happening due to the consistency, pressure, and swirls of the writing, as shown in the quote where he concludes that the writing was written on a train, due to the consistency of good writing, bad writing, and terrible handwriting.
Holmes could tell certain information about a person, where they were, and what was happening due to the consistency, pressure, and swirls of the writing, as shown in the quote where he concludes that the writing was written on a train, due to the consistency of good writing, bad writing, and terrible handwriting. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Charles Baskerville’s footprints are found near his dead body. He was waiting at the moor gate and suddenly his foot pattern changed and started going the other way. “‘That change in the footprints, for example. What do you make of that?’ (...) ‘He was running, Watson—running desperately, running for his life, running until he burst his heart and fell dead upon his face.’” (Doyle 38) Holmes could tell if the victim was running or creeping, which helps out with the case incredibly whether the victim was running away from someone, or creeping onto someone.
Sherlock Holmes impacted current forensic science related to detective work due to his use of fingerprints, cartography, and footprints. Holmes used fingerprints for evidence 11 years before it was used in real life. He recognized cartography incredibly well, being able to tell important details about the person who wrote the letter. He also could tell through the patterns of footprints the pace of the person. In conclusion, the detective forensic science was influenced through Sherlock Holmes's investigation in his novels.