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Dna Technology And Crime

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Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is really important to police crime scene investigations involving crimes such as murder and rape. Law enforcement has collected a large database of DNA to compare it from crime scenes that are both old and new. It has released convicted prisoners who were called into question by DNA evidence. Evidence that can link a criminal to a crime could involve bodily fluids, fingerprints, fibers, or types of soil. Imagine, someone breaking a window in a home, and cuts themselves in the process, DNA analysts could potentially figure out who that person is because they left their blood DNA behind. DNA collection requires a lot of careful handling. DNA analysts are to keep samples collected at a crime scene separate. For example, a victim’s blood and the suspects blood. Why is this important? According to the article DNA Technology and Crime “It’s important because any cross contamination within the two samples can call all evidence found on the crime scene questionable.” (“DNA Technology and Crime”, 2014). …show more content…

Simpson case and how a defense attorney, Scheck , argued that the people involved in working this case did not handle the evidence they collected very well. The article DNA Technology and Crime stated that, “A vial of Simpson’s blood was carried around in an assistant’s lab coat for a day before being entered into evidence, and technicians could not later explain why there appeared to be a portion of the blood unaccounted for.” (“DNA Technology and Crime”, 2014). In the end, Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman. Some say it was because of the wrong procedures of law enforcement and the crime

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1964 Words | 8 Pages

The Department of Justice says, "States began passing laws requiring offenders convicted of certain offenses to provide DNA samples. " That DNA evidence can help convict someone of a crime and it helps to uncover more things about the crime itself. Investigators have been using forensic science to help them solve cases since before the 90 's, mostly fingerprints that were found at the crime scenes and on the victims (O 'Brien). DNA evidence has solved countless cases including ones that happened over a prolonged period of time because of the technological advancements there is

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657 Words | 3 Pages

Without the help of DNA, connecting offenders to their victims and the scene of the crime, so many cases would be left unsolved. Shockingly enough, it wasn’t until 1984 where DNA was used for biological identification. Once DNA started to play such a big role in criminal justice, many cases where they didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute, were brought to court and finally solved. Even though there was such a large gap in when the offenses were first committed and when they were solved, there was still justice for the victims and their families. An important case where DNA changes everything would be that of Gary Ridgway, otherwise known as the green river killer.

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1159 Words | 5 Pages

Today, the FBI has DNA records of more than 5 million convicted offenders in the database CODIS, or Combined DNA Index System. However, DNA fingerprinting has limitations: it is limited to directly connecting crimes to felons already in CODIS, has high risk of contamination, does not look at familial records, and only analyzes short pieces of DNA. With the advent of more affordable and high resolution genetic technologies after The Human Genome Project, over 35 million people have submitted their DNA to the largest direct-to-consumer genetic companies. Two companies, FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch, also allow law enforcement access to their databases. Thus, beginning investigative genetic genealogy, a new method of forensic investigation not only with higher resolution DNA information than DNA fingerprinting but also the capability of finding a suspect from distant relatives.

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In the lab report three students are tested along with one suspect. Student number two’s DNA matched the suspects DNA. The student’s DNA’s are cut with five different enzymes as well as the suspects DNA. Student two’s DNA matched exactly with the suspects DNA; the other two student’s DNA did not resemble the suspects DNA at all. (Choi, et al, 2008) DNA fingerprinting is used a lot in determining who committed a crime.

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728 Words | 3 Pages

DNA can be used as evidence to charge and imprison people. There are many pros to forensic dna like solving crimes and finding criminals. But Forensic dna also has many cons too like how dna can be tampered with and can falsely incriminate innocent people. Dna being used to throw the track off of criminals and nowadays be used to forge another person’s fingerprint on to a weapon of a sort and left behind to falsely accuse an innocent person so now Dna is not reliable all the time.

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562 Words | 3 Pages

Murders that are left unsolved leaves family members puzzled and wondering. It is important that we solve murders so we can stop the victim from doing it again. I already know a bit about DNA evidence from my KWL chart crime research, but I would need to learn more about its specific application in cold cases. In my preliminary research, I learned that DNA has helped solve many cold cases over the years. There have been cases where decades-old evidence was retested with updated technology and resulted in identifying the victimizer.

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1693 Words | 7 Pages

DNA testing and other methods can now provide accurate and certain results that are irrefutable. For example, in the U.S., as of September 2011, 273 people including 17 death row inmates have been exonerated by use of DNA tests. The increasing use of DNA testing to help confirm the innocence or guilt in capital cases is

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1349 Words | 6 Pages

Technology is more prominent than ever, so it is necessary to draw the line between its usefulness and its potential violation of privacy. Much like fingerprinting, DNA profiling is a useful way to identify criminals and their victims; however, DNA profiling has proven much more useful and accurate. The genetic information that is found in DNA can be obtained through a number of specimens such as hair, saliva, and blood. Given a sample, current technology can decrypt genetic information and store it in a database to be accessed by law enforcement authorities for criminal justice. The FBI was given the power to establish a National DNA Index System (NDIS) when Congress passed the DNA Identification Act in 1994.

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739 Words | 3 Pages

Blood, urine, and hair samples can provide DNA of the suspect in support of the

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350 Words | 2 Pages

In forensics it is not always a guarantee to find DNA at a crime scene and if there is DNA it will only go so far so with biotechnology the DNA sample can be copied using the polymerase chain reaction which targets specific sections of the DNA to copy. The copies

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714 Words | 3 Pages

This can progress to people being acquainted with depression or mental health issues caused by being convicted of a crime and then finding out they are actually innocent. Despite this, police send small samples to multiple independent labs, which helps to reduce the possibility of an error which would affect the final results. Again, this can be related to the ethical issues of DNA profiling, as DNA evidence is being passed through multiple labs, meaning the individuals private DNA information has the potential to be used in a different crime than originally sort out. However, it is stated in an article on “Forensic Databases: benefits and ethical and social costs” that “Public support has been presumed on the grounds that all law-abiding people want criminals to be caught and convicted and the ‘innocent’ have nothing to fear from DNA technology.” Therefore it can be concluded that the public want criminals to be caught, so having DNA evidence passed through these independent labs, helps in a faster, more accurate identification of these criminals and if you are actually innocent then you should have nothing to worry about, as your DNA evidence will not arise in this

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978 Words | 4 Pages

Those states that allow law enforcement officials to obtain samples provide for a way to have samples removed if the charges are dropped. Most states require a person to request they be removed but nine states automatically remove samples incase of no conviction. The pros of collecting DNA samples are boiled down to a few main points, while there are many reasons why collecting it at the time of arrest would be considered a bad idea. One reason why it is a bad idea is privacy.

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1095 Words | 5 Pages

● It can be used to determine if a person is guilty or not. The evidence from forensic can be enough to put a person into prison. ● It can be used to solve old unsolved cases if there is still DNA available from that case. ● Help identify victims in big disasters where the body of the person can not physically be easily

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1512 Words | 7 Pages

In the United States, the death penalty and the question of executing innocent people has become a fundamental topic of discussion. Jay D. Aronson and Simon A. Cole propose that, “due to the certainty attached to DNA evidence in public discourse, it can be used as a lever with which to challenge law’s claims to truth-making authority, and to undermine public trust in the death penalty” (Aronson and Cole 603). Shlomit Avraham maintains that “the success of obtaining DNA profiles from touch DNA has opened up possibilities and led to the collection of DNA from a wider range of exhibits” (Avraham 793). How many people have been released or imprisoned due to faulty accusations? Where are DNA samples found, and what is it?

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1251 Words | 6 Pages

DNA in forensic science The majority of cells making up the human body are diploid cells carrying identical DNA, with the exception of haploid gametes and red blood cells. Several types of biological evidence such as blood and hair are commonly used in forensic science, which is the scientific study of evidence for crime scene investigations and other legal matters. Forensic science is used for the purpose of DNA analysis, this is the analysis of DNA samples to determine if it came from a particular individual. DNA analysis is done by obtaining DNA samples from an individual; next, a large sample of DNA is produced from amplified selected sequences from the DNA collected.

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