Survey of DNA Crime Laboratories, 2001

• NCJ Number: 191191
• Author(s): Greg W. Steadman
• Date Published: January 2002
• Length: 8 pages
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Type: Statistics

Annotation

This report presents findings from a survey of publicly operated forensic crime labs that perform Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) testing.

Abstract

Reports findings from a survey of publicly operated forensic crime labs that perform Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) testing. The survey is a follow-up to the initial survey of DNA crime labs in 1998. The survey included questions about each lab's budget, personnel, workloads, procedures, equipment, and other topics. Numerical tables present workloads in terms of known subject cases, unknown subject cases, and convicted offender DNA samples. Data were obtained from 110 of the 120 estimated known DNA crime labs. The report compares findings to the baseline data from the initial survey.

• In 2000 DNA crime laboratories received about 31,000 subject cases, an increase from almost 21,000 cases in 1999.
• Forty-five percent of laboratories reported contracting a private laboratories to do forensic DNA testing in 2000.
• At the beginning of 2001, 81% of DNA crime laboratories had backlogs totaling 16,081 subject cases and 265,329 convicted offender samples.