Criminalistics
"Wherever he steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves,
even unconsciously, will serve as silent evidence against
him. Not only his fingerprints or his footprints, but his
hair, the fibers from his clothes, the glass he breaks,
the tool mark he leaves, the paint he scratches, the blood
or semen that he deposits or collects - all these and more
bear mute witness against him. This is evidence that does
not forget. It is not confused by the excitement of the
moment. It is not absent because human witnesses are. It
is factual evidence. Physical evidence cannot be wrong;
it cannot perjure itself; it cannot be wholly absent. Only
its interpretation can err. Only human failure to find it,
study and understand it, can diminish its value."
— Paul L. Kirk, PhD
“Father of Criminalistics”
Crime Investigation: Physical Evidence and
the Police
Laboratory Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York, NY 1953
Chapter 1, page 4.
Test firing of a weapon in the Firearms
Section of a forensic lab.
