THE NAISSANCE OF FORENSICS IN SERBIA

Abstract

Serbian police gradually implemented scientific methods in legal proceedings and determinately kept up with the world in the application of the latest scientific achievements. The first step in this field was made by establishing the State Chemical Laboratory in 1859, which performed various expert analyses of evidence for the purpose of criminal investigation. Education in forensic medicine performed in the Faculty of Law starting from 1863 provided conducting forensic medical and anatomical pathological investigations, as well as pathohistological and bacterial examinations. The same as in the other European countries, starting from 1897 in Serbia, photography was used in the investigation of criminal events in the penal system. So-called „bertillonage“, based on anthropometry and accepted world wide as reliable method for identification of criminals, was introduced in Serbia in 1904 when the Anhropometric Police Department was established.. As soon as the methods of classification of the fingerprints were developed, dactyloscopy was advocated in Serbia and practiced in the Anthropometric Police Department since 1912. The development interrupted by the Great War continued after its end. The Department of Technical Police established in 1921 in Belgrade with jurisdiction on the entire state territory successfully performed its main task: took care of photographing criminals and other dangerous persons, registered criminals and been a forensic-medical laboratorium. Analysis of birth and youth of forensic methods in Serbia will be performed in this paper in order to indicate that regarding forensical development Serbia in the 19th and early 20th centuries was not outside the European mainstream as well as it isn't today.