The hero is never solely responsible for success stories: Criminalistics in the Netherlands in 1900-1930 through an actor-network perspective

Abstract

This thesis explores the reconstruction of crime scenes in the Netherlands in 1900-1930. Criminalistics and the study of the crime were still relatively new in this age and depended on a web of forensic and investigative pioneers, new techniques for identification, and also a new attention for the material elements of crime scenes: the silent witnesses. The history of criminalistics also shows a recurring theme of strict separation between the human world and the natural world. Although investigators had to literally reconstruct crime scenes, they also had to refrain from interfering with it. In this thesis I use insights from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and apply them to two criminal cases in which the famous criminalist C. J. van Ledden Hulsebosch featured as a forensic consultant. By analysing these cases through a material-semiotic view, I argue that, in practice, investigators had to compromise their ideal of separation if they were to stand up to the challenges of modern crime scene investigation.