1.

0 INTRODUCTION
Locard’s exchange
principle is an
important part of
forensic science
investigation. It states
that any criminal leaves
behind a trace when
committing a violent
crime. It is the
investigator’s duty to find this trace evidence and reconstruct the events of the crime.
(Roncacè, 2016)

As long as the criminal

remains upon two legs so
long must there be some
indentation, some abrasion,
and some trifling
displacement which can be
detected by the scientific
researcher.
~ Sherlock Holmes, the
Adventure of Black Peter

Forensic science has changed the way crime investigations are handled. By examining and
analyzing the physical evidence and reconstructing the circumstances of the crime, forensic
investigators are able to come up with scientific information that they can present in court. A
person who is responsible for one of the most important principles in forensic science is
Edmond Locard. He came up with the Locard’s exchange principle or Locard’s theory which
states that “Any action of an individual, and obviously, the violent action constituting the
crime, cannot occur without leaving a trace.”

A devout viewer of crime investigative series on television will be able to understand the
importance of this principle. Haven’t we all observed how the investigator goes to the site of
a grisly murder and examines the crime scene, to check for blood stains, footprints or
 fingerprints, murder weapons and even the slightest of traces of blood in the nails? This is
known as trace evidence, and according to Locard’s principle whenever a crime is
committed, trace evidence no matter how small or less, will always be present. (Roncacè,
2016)

1.2 Understanding Locard’s Exchange Principle

To understand Locard’s theory it is important to understand how important trace evidence is
to forensic investigation. When a crime is committed, the police and investigators are left
with fragmented pieces of a puzzle. The forensic team helps in reconstructing the puzzle
with the help of trace evidence which refers to evidence left behind by the criminal on the
crime scene. This can be anything from hair, fibers, pieces of clothing, blood, fingerprints,
etc. (Roncacè, 2016)

According to noted forensic scientist Paul L. Kirk

“Wherever he steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves, even unconsciously, will

serve as a silent witness 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 he deposits or collects. All of 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 human failure to find it, study and understand it, can diminish its value.”

1.3 Development of Locard’s Exchange Principle

Before the 19th century, most of the time in

court and during investigation, witness
testimonies were favored as opposed to
evidence. Most investigators refused to perform
invasive procedures on the dead body due to
emotional respect, squeamishness and
sometimes even superstitions. With the
progression of scientific studies i n anatomy and
microscopy, science was integrated into criminal investigations.

The first known use of science and logic for crime investigation was done by Alphonse
Bertillon in the late 1800s.

He developed Bertillon age, a simple procedure which involved recording a series of body
measurements and noting other physical characteristics. This information was then placed on
 a single identification card in a police file. Prior to the use of fingerprint recognition, this was
the most used system of tracking and identifying criminals.

Apart from body measurement, Bertillon was also responsible for development of
photography for criminal identification.

It was Bertillon’s contribution to the forensic sciences that influenced Dr. Edmond Locard,
the vanguard of forensic science. He was the director of the first crime laboratory, in Lyon,
France and worked as a medical examiner during World War I.

Like Alphonse Bertillon, Locard too advocated the use of scientific studies for criminal
investigation. According to him, “Il est impossible au malfaiteur d’agir avec l’intensité que
suppose l’action criminelle sans laisser des traces de son passage.” which translates to “It is
impossible for a criminal to act, especially considering the intensity of a crime, without
leaving traces of his presence.” He tested this principle of exchange during many of his
investigations.

In 1930, Locard published three papers in the American Journal of Police Science which are
now known as Locard’s Theory of Exchange

Other significant contributions by Locard involves dactylography, which is an area of study

that deals with fingerprints. He developed poroscopy, which is the study of fingerprint pores
and the impressions produced by these pores. (Roncacè, 2016)

1.4 Application of Locard’s

Exchange Principle

One of the best ways to

demonstrate how Locard ‘s
theory is applied, we take an
instance of an investigation done
by Locard himself. In 1912,
while investigating the death of a
Frenchwoman named Marie
Latelle, the police questioned her
boyfriend Emile Gourbin. He
claimed he was playing cards with his friends, and when questioned, the friends attested to
this fact. When the corpse was examined by Locard he found evidence of death by
strangulation. (Roncacè, 2016)
 He scraped underneath the boyfriend’s fingernails to look for skin cell samples. On close
examination under a microscope, Locard found a pink dust in the cell samples. He figured
this was makeup and although popular, makeup was not very widely manufactured. After
searching further he found a chemist who made custom-made powder for the deceased
woman and a match was made. With all evidence against him, Gourbain confessed of murder
and tricking his friends into believing his alibi. (Roncacè, 2016)

Is it Possible to Get Away with “A

Perfect Crime?”

According to Locard’s “every contact

leaves a trace” theory, it is impossible to
commit a crime without leaving behind
fragmentary (or trace) evidence. It is the
investigators job to collect the physical
evidence and carefully examine it, so as to
create systematic documentation. The
documentation of the physical evidence along with the statements of the witness, suspects,
and victims help in crime reconstruction.

According to criminalist Dr. Richard Saferstein, The physical evidence left behind at the
crime scene plays a crucial role in reconstructing the events that took place surrounding the
crime. He further states that, the collection and documentation of physical evidence is the
foundation of a reconstruction. (Roncacè, 2016)

1.5 The trace evidence can be divided into:

 Physical (clothing, glass fragments, paint chips etc)
 Biological (DNA, fingerprints, hair)
 Natural evidence (soil, pollen, seeds and plants)

1.6 The Drawbacks of Locard’s Theory

One of the greatest drawbacks of Locard’s exchange theory lies in evidence dynamics. This
refers to the alteration of physical evidence before it has been examined by investigators.
There are many factors that can lead to the tampering and destruction of evidence. (Roncacè,
2016)

 Staging (manipulation of objects in crime scene) by the offender

 Secondary transfer of evidence
 Actions of the victim before the crime
  Witness actions
 Natural factors like animal or insect activity, weather, and decomposition.
 Fire suppression efforts
 Actions of police, scene technicians and medical personnel.

These factors can lead to the removal or obliteration of the evidence. They can often mislead
the investigators and cause problems with crime reconstruction. Misinterpretations or
misleading evidence can lead to inaccurate crime reconstruction. To avoid this, the
investigator needs to make sure that the crime scene investigation and reconstruction is
carried out with care. (Roncacè, 2016)

CONCLUSION

in “every contact leaves a trace” and inferred from Edmond Locard’s perception that it is
impossible for a criminal to act, especially considering the intensity of a crime, without leaving
traces of his presence. This concept has to be kept in mind during every crime scene
investigation; even more from an ichnological point of view because of footwear impressions
evanescence. The right approach to inspect the place where the crime occurred should be with
the expectation and awareness that it always could contain traces. All the previous researches
were focused on the analysis of a single footprint (Forensic Podology) and most striking, without
a real ichnological approach. The detection of a track way on a crime scene expects the use of
the same tools and analysis methods to those used for fossil track ways. Precisely for this, I want
to prove that footwear impressions and track ways, analyzed with paleoichnological
methodologies, can give distinctive information such as the locomotion type that is necessarily
related to the track maker’s DE ambulation. Indeed, the attempt to extrapolate characters from
track ways has been done based on the rationale that many characters of human locomotion
derive from biomechanical constraints which are strongly related to the physical structure. The
results suggest a very high possibility to discriminate the males from the females by their track
ways as well a high possibility to recognize the track ways imprinted by the same individual.
REFERENCE

Roncacè, S. (2016). Locard's exchange principle.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
305640858_Every_contact_leaves_a_trace_Locard_1920