Final answer:
By the early 1900s, fingerprints were being collected at crime scenes for suspect identification; DNA analysis was not utilized in forensics until later.
Step-by-step explanation:
By the early 1900s, fingerprints were being collected at crime scenes to help positively identify suspects by one particularly unique trait. Each person's fingerprints are unique, and the process of comparing fingerprints, known as fingerprint analysis, became a crucial tool for law enforcement. Although now associated with crime solving, DNA analysis did not begin to enter the forensic science field until the mid-1980s, with the development of DNA fingerprinting by Dr. Alec Jeffreys.