Problems With Dna Testing

Problems with DNA Testing

DNA testing had become one of the key ideas for forensic scientists. DNA had been used in many crimes involving bodily fluids, blood, semen, sweat, etc., that had been left at a scene of a crime. The most common DNA test was blood. There had been cases where a Jane or John Doe had been found and if dental records could not help, the pathologist relied on the results from DNA testing. DNA had been a beneficial factor that helped close cases, but did run into some problems. Timing was one of the problems with DNA testing. There were two reasons why timing was a problem. The first reason, DNA could degrade over time if a sample was not collected in time or if the sample aged (DNA Delay). There had been cases which involved

From chemicals to dust there were many factors that could contaminate DNA (DNA Testing Mistakes). There had been cases where blood had been mixed together, which was impossible to separate the two. If the crime scene investigator used a chemical at the lab and the chemical accidently spilt onto the DNA evidence, the chemical contamination had caused the DNA to become worthless for the case (DNA Testing Mistakes). Another way DNA became contaminated was if the forensic scientist forgot to change their gloves between handling evidence from a different crime (DNA Testing Mistakes). Forgetting to change gloves transferred trace or chemicals that were used in a different evidence examination to the current evidence examination (DNA Testing Mistakes). A third way DNA contamination could occur was if the instruments that had been used were not properly sterilized. Forensic scientists used many instruments at the work place. Sometimes when a forensic scientist lost track or got distracted from the analysis of evidence, the scientist would accidently use the same instrument that had been used before to do another test on evidence (DNA Testing Mistakes). Another source of contamination could have been from not cleaning the workstation properly after evidence had been examined from a crime (DNA Testing Mistakes). Workstations in the lab were used by multiple scientists, multiple times a day. If a scientist did not take the proper

Self-contamination was the act of contamination, or of making something impure or unsuitable by contact with something unclean, bad, etc., (self-contamination). The self-contamination, in forensics, would be the scientist who would add a foreign object or trace to the evidence that had come from the scientist while the evidence was being examined. When a forensic scientist examined the evidence, the scientist could easily have transferred their own DNA onto the evidence where DNA was being collected (DNA Testing Mistakes). There was an investigation that involved a scientist investigating a rape case. The evidence collected from the rape case was underwear that had been worn by the victim (DNA Testing Mistakes). The scientist had accidently contaminated the underwear with his own DNA by talking during the examination process (DNA Testing Mistakes). By the scientist talking during the examination, the scientist transferred saliva onto the underwear (DNA Testing Mistakes). Another way a scientist could self-contaminate evidence was by the scientist losing hair during the examination (DNA Testing Mistakes). If a scientist was not wearing their hair up or not wearing a hair net, the scientist’s hair could fall onto the table where the evidence was exposed (DNA Testing Mistakes). When the self-contamination of the hair loss occurred, a scientist confused the crime scene hair sample with their own (DNA Testing