Juan Vucetich Kovacevich (born Ivan Vučetić; 20 July 1858 – 25 January 1925) was an Argentine-Croatian anthropologist and police official who pioneered the use of dactyloscopy (fingerprint identification).
Biography
Vucetich was born in Hvar, Kingdom of Dalmatia, then part of the Austrian Empire, and immigrated to Argentina in 1884.
In 1891, he began the first filing of fingerprints based on ideas of Francis Galton, which he expanded significantly. He became the director of the Center for Dactyloscopy in Buenos Aires. At the time, he included the Bertillon system alongside the fingerprint files.
The first positive identification of a criminal was made in 1892, when Francisca Rojas killed her two children, then cut her own throat in an attempt to put the blame on an outside attacker. A bloody print identified her as the killer.
Vucetich died in Dolores, Buenos Aires. There is a bust in his native Hvar. In 2023, a museum was opened in Hvar, named in his honor.