NCJ Number
227522
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 57 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2009 Pages: 49-53
Date Published
June 2009
Length
5 pages
Annotation
After reviewing the history of DNA in crime investigations, this article discusses the cost-effectiveness of using DNA analysis in property-crime investigations as well as violent-crime cases, followed by descriptions of automated DNA analysis and legislation for DNA programs.
Abstract
Since the National Research Council recognized the reliability of DNA testing in the early 1990s, the technology has become mainstream in the court system. The National DNA Index System (NDIS) currently contains 6,625,752 offender profiles (profiles of convicted offenders) and 252,338 forensic profiles (DNA profiles collected from crime scenes). The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) electronically processes the information, allowing crime labs from all jurisdictions to exchange and compare collected DNA evidence. Expanding DNA analysis to include biological evidence from property-crime scenes is costly, but the result may prove to be worth the costs. Property-crime offenders have a high recidivism rate, and people who commit burglary often escalate to more serious crimes. The effort to expand DNA analysis to include property crimes, however, has created a backlog of untested DNA evidence. The U.S. Justice Department's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) assigned a task force of forensic scientists to address this problem. Solutions have included expansion of analysis capacity, improved education to increase the pool of qualified personnel, financial assistance to State and local forensic labs, and development of new technologies. One new technology is Applied Biosystem's GeneMapper ID-X software, a state-of-the art automated data assessment system that separates DNA samples that require manual review from those that do not. This significantly reduces the time spent on routine analytical tasks. In 2008, Congress approved $147 million in funding for the Federal DNA backlog program based on the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Act of 2004.