ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 October 1979
Page Count: 6

Criminalistics—A Look Back at the 1970s, a Look Ahead to the 1980s
Saferstein, R
Chief forensic chemist, New Jersey State Police, Forensic Science Bureau, N. J.

(Received 7 March 1979; accepted 10 May 1979)

Abstract

It would be an overt act of omission to permit this decade to expire without reflection on its impact on criminalistics in the United States. Its influences were profound. No prior comparable period matched the growth and maturation of our profession during this decade. In the short span of ten years criminalistics, at first a stepchild of the analytical sciences, grew to achieve full acceptance as a legitimate discipline of applied science. In retrospect, this progress was long overdue considering that criminalistics entered the 1970s not as a new phenomenon but as one that had been in existence for nearly 60 years. Given the political and economic climate of the 1970s, anything less than the unpreceden:ed growth experienced would have warranted a severe condemnation of its professional community.

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Paper ID: JFS10924J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS10924J
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