Forensic DNA Data Banks and Data Mining

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-104
Author(s):  
Frederick R. Bieber
Keyword(s):  
Crime Scene ◽  
Forensic Dna ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Dna Database ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Genetic Profiles ◽  
Dna Profiles ◽  
Forensic Genetic ◽  
Data Banks

This chapter discusses how comparing the genetic profiles from crime scene evidence with the profiles in a DNA database can identify persons of interest. Forensic data banks contain DNA extracts as well as computerized databases of coded DNA profiles of convicted offenders, arrestees, and crime scene samples. Searching forensic DNA data banks has provided key investigative leads in thousands of criminal investigations. The chapter explains familial searching, the search for a “partial” match of the evidence profile with a database profile, which leads to the identification of a suspect who is related to the individual in the database, and discusses several high-profile cases that have used this strategy. The recent cases solved by searching ancestry-based DNA databases (genealogics or forensic genetic genealogy) are discussed, as are the metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of DNA database mining as well as the legal and policy issues involved in balancing public safety with privacy interests.

Turning Base Hits into Earned Runs: Improving the Effectiveness of Forensic DNA Data Bank Programs

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick R. Bieber
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Biological Samples ◽  
Data Bank ◽  
Crime Scene ◽  
Forensic Dna ◽  
Potential Harm ◽  
The Public ◽  
Dna Database ◽  
Dna Profiles ◽  
Data Banks

Forensic data banks contain biological samples and DNA extracts as well as computerized databases of coded DNA profiles of convicted offenders, arrestees and crime scene samples. When used for investigative and law enforcement purposes, DNA data banks have been successful in providing key investigative leads in hundreds of criminal investigations. A number of these crimes would never have been resolved without use of such data banks. In addition, in some limited number of investigations, the exclusion of known suspects whose DNA profiles are known to be in an offender database can save valuable investigative time.Despite the above benefits, in hundreds of cases DNA samples are never collected and administrative and laboratory logjams delay prompt database searches. Furthermore, hundreds of DNA database matches (hits) languish, without any followup by law enforcement or prosecutors. These prevent or delay DNA matches and therefore can leave the public in grave risk of potential harm from recidivistic offenders who otherwise could have been apprehended and convicted if the process functioned more effectively.

‘The NDNAD Has No Ability in Itself to be Discriminatory’: Ethnicity and the Governance of the UK National DNA Database

Sociology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 976-992 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Skinner
Keyword(s):  
Black People ◽  
Crime Scene ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Dna Database ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Dna Profiles ◽  
Political Governance ◽  
Ethnic Appearance

This article explores the place of ‘ethnicity’ in the operation, management and contestation of the UK National DNA Database (NDNAD). In doing so, it examines the limitations of bioethics as a response to political questions raised by the new genetics. The UK police forensic database has been racialised in a number of distinct ways: in the over-representation of black people in the database population; in the classification of all DNA profiles according to ‘ethnic appearance’; in the use of data for experiments to determine the ethnicity of crime scene DNA; and in the focus on ethnicity in public debate about the database. This racialisation presented potential problems of legitimacy for the NDNAD but, as the article shows, these have been partly neutralised through systems of ethico-political governance. In these systems of governance discussion of institutional racism has been postponed or displaced by other ways of talking about ethnicity and identity.

scholarly journals Efficient DNA Sampling in Burglary Investigations

Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Colin Charles Tièche ◽  
Markus Dubach ◽  
Martin Zieger
Keyword(s):  
Crime Scene ◽  
Forensic Dna ◽  
Dna Profile ◽  
Dna Database ◽  
Dna Sampling ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
Crime Scene Investigators ◽  
Dna Collection ◽  
Private Homes ◽  
Reference Samples

In terms of crime scene investigations by means of forensic DNA-analyses, burglaries are the number one mass crime in Switzerland. Around one third of the DNA trace profiles registered in the Swiss DNA database are related to burglaries. However, during the collection of potential DNA traces within someone’s residence after a burglary, it is not known whether the sampled DNA originated from the perpetrator or from an inhabitant of said home. Because of the high incidence of burglaries, crime scene investigators usually do not collect reference samples from all the residents for economical and administrative reasons. Therefore, the presumably high probability that a DNA profile belonging to a person authorized to be at the crime scene ends up being sent to a DNA database for comparison, has to be taken into account. To our knowledge, no investigation has been made to evaluate the percentage of these non-perpetrator profiles straying into DNA databases. To shed light on this question, we collected reference samples from residents who had been victims of recent burglaries in their private homes. By comparing the profiles established from these reference samples with the profiles generated from trace DNA, we can show that the majority of the DNA samples collected in burglary investigations belong to the residents. Despite the limited number of cases included in the study, presumably due to a crime decline caused by the pandemic, we further show that trace DNA collection in the vicinity of the break and entry area, in particular window and door glasses, is most promising for sampling perpetrator instead of inhabitant DNA.

Functioning of DNA Database in Poland

2017 ◽  
Vol 297 ◽  
pp. 59-65
Author(s):  
Anna Jurga ◽  
◽  
Jakub Mondzelewski ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Police Work ◽  
The Other ◽  
Forensic Dna ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Dna Databases ◽  
Dna Database ◽  
Small Collection ◽  
Dna Profiles

Forensic DNA databases that operate in the zone forming an interface between science and law have the purpose of gathering and processing DNA profiles for the needs of law enforcement and judicial authorities responsible for preventing and combating crime. Therefore, their appropriate functioning is important. On one hand, it improves efficiency of police work and, on the other hand, it has to play a required role in protecting citizen rights and personal data. The National DNA Database has functioned in Poland since 2007. Its effectiveness is correlated with the number of stored profiles. Despite small collection the Database has on numerous occasions proven its high usefulness in solving criminal cases. The possibility of carrying out searches in other countries databases, as well as legislative and organisational undertakings aiming at improvement of the Database operation are gradually bringing effects and result in an increased detective potential of this tool.

A Consumer Perspective on Forensic DNA Banking

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 408-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon F. Terry ◽  
Patrick F. Terry
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Data Bank ◽  
The State ◽  
Forensic Dna ◽  
Dna Profile ◽  
Dna Banking ◽  
Community Activists ◽  
Consumer Perspective ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Data Banks

The currently evolving debate over ethical and legal approaches to DNA data banks reflects, in part, shifting societal perceptions of dividing lines between humanity and commodity, definitions of genetic inheritance between individuals and families, and the rights of the individual versus the rights of the community. Tensions arise whether the data bank has been created for medical or for forensic purposes. The authors, through their work as community activists described more fully below, have come to realize that the key to resolving these tensions and developing ethically acceptable DNA data bank practices is meaningful community engagement. Not unlike medical DNA data banks, personally identifiable DNA samples are routinely retained by states long after a convict's or arrestee's DNA profile has been derived from it and entered into the state database. The question arises, then, as to what, if any, non-forensic uses can these samples – ethically – be put.

Beyond the Cold Hit: Measuring the Impact of the National DNA Data Bank on Public Safety at the City and County Level

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 396-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Gabriel ◽  
Cherisse Boland ◽  
Cydne Holt
Keyword(s):  
Public Safety ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Data Bank ◽  
County Level ◽  
Forensic Dna ◽  
Dna Database ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Dna Profiles ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Criminalistics laboratories routinely provide cold hits in police investigations by comparing DNA profiles from crime scenes to offenders residing in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Forensic DNA analysis is often glamorized in popular culture, where the perpetrators are identified and crimes solved within a single television episode. In reality forensic DNA hits can identify perpetrators of violent offenses, link multiple crimes committed by the same individual, or exclude suspects and exonerate the falsely accused. Unlike the media portrayals, downstream activities after a DNA identification or cold hit are often more complex. While the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) cites a national Data Bank of more than 7.2 million DNA profiles and 94,000 identifications nationwide, an in-depth analysis of public safety improvements made with CODIS is currently unavailable to forensic practitioners and public policy analysts. A review of case resolutions for 198 DNA database hits in San Francisco created performance metrics to provide a concrete measure of the effectiveness of DNA databasing efforts at the city and county level.

scholarly journals Interpretation of DNA data within the context of UK forensic science — evaluation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Puch-Solis ◽  
Susan Pope
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
Crime Scene ◽  
Database Search ◽  
Dna Profiling ◽  
Forensic Dna ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Kinship Analysis ◽  
Dna Database ◽  
Forensic Dna Profiling ◽  
The Uk

Forensic DNA provides a striking contribution to the provision of justice worldwide. It has proven to be crucial in the investigative phase of an unsolved crime where a suspect needs to be identified, e.g. from a DNA database search both nationally and internationally. It is also a powerful tool in the assignment of evidential weight to the comparison of a profile of a person of interest and a crime scene profile. The focus of this document is the evaluation of autosomal profiles for criminal trials in the UK. A separate review covers investigation and evaluation of Y-STR profiles, investigation using autosomal profiles, kinship analysis, body identification and Forensic Genetic Genealogy investigations. In less than 40 years, forensic DNA profiling has developed from a specialist technique to everyday use. Borrowing on advances in genome typing technology, forensic DNA profiling has experienced a substantial increase in its sensitivity and informativeness. Alongside this development, novel interpretation methodologies have also been introduced. This document describes the state of the art and future advances in the interpretation of forensic DNA data.

scholarly journals Is Obtaining an Arrestee's DNA a Valid Special Needs Search Under the Fourth Amendment? What Should (and Will) the Supreme Court Do?

2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey Maclin
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
Recidivism Rate ◽  
Forensic Dna ◽  
Dna Database ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Law Enforcement Officials ◽  
Scientific Accuracy ◽  
Dna Profiles ◽  
Forensic Dna Testing

In the past twenty years, advances in forensic DNA technology have revolutionized the American criminal justice system. The use of forensic DNA testing in America began in 1987, and its demonstrated scientific accuracy quickly led jurisdictions to accept expert testimony regarding DNA matches between suspects and crime scene evidence. Wielding the power to exonerate the innocent and apprehend the guilty, the use of DNA identification technology has become an indispensable resource for prosecutors and law enforcement officials, as well as for defense lawyers representing persons falsely accused or wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit. As states began to compile DNA profiles from convicted offenders, the need for a repository for these profiles resulted in the DNA database.Originally, DNA databases included only “those classes of offenders with a high recidivism rate, such as sex offenders and violent felons.” Recognizing the crime-solving potential of this technology, state legislatures soon began to expand the scope of DNA database statutes to include broader classes of offenders.

scholarly journals Interpretation of DNA data within the context of UK forensic science — investigation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Pope ◽  
Roberto Puch-Solis
Keyword(s):  
Forensic Science ◽  
Y Chromosome ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
International Crime ◽  
Crime Scene ◽  
Forensic Dna ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Kinship Analysis ◽  
Chromosome Y ◽  
Forensic Genetic

This article is the second part of a review of the interpretation of DNA data in forensic science. The first part describes the evaluation of autosomal profile for criminal trials where an evidential weight is assigned to the profile of a person of interest (POI) and a crime-scene profile. This part describes the state of the art and future advances in the interpretation of forensic DNA data for providing intelligence information during an investigation. Forensic DNA is crucial in the investigative phase of an undetected crime where a POI needs to be identified. A sample taken from a crime scene is profiled using a range of forensic DNA tests. This review covers investigation using autosomal profiles including searching national and international crime and reference DNA databases. Other investigative methodologies described are kinship analysis; familial searching; Y chromosome (Y-STR) and mitochondrial (mtDNA) profiles; appearance prediction and geographic ancestry; forensic genetic genealogy; and body identification. For completeness, the evaluation of Y-STRs, mtDNA and kinship analysis are briefly described. Taken together, parts I and II, cover the range of interpretation of DNA data in a forensic context.

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