Explaining differential trust of DNA forensic technology: Grounded assessment or inexplicable paranoia?

Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics

Volumn 34, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 293-300

  Duster, Troy ^a,b,c  

^a Department of Sociology ^*  (United States)

^b NEW YORK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ATTITUDE; CIVIL RIGHTS; CONFERENCE PAPER; DNA FINGERPRINTING; GENETICS; HUMAN; LAW ENFORCEMENT; NUCLEIC ACID DATABASE; RACE; TRUST; UNITED KINGDOM; UNITED STATES;

ATTITUDE; CIVIL RIGHTS; CONTINENTAL POPULATION GROUPS; DATABASES, NUCLEIC ACID; DNA FINGERPRINTING; GREAT BRITAIN; HUMANS; LAW ENFORCEMENT; TRUST; UNITED STATES;

EID: 33745401475     PISSN: 10731105     EISSN: 1748720X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-720X.2006.00034.x     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (43)

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8. Personal communication with Dan Krane, September 11, 2005. As noted in the text, Krane is one of the nation's leading experts on DNA forensic technology. Reference notes 9 and 10 explain his role. He was an expert witness at this trial, and sent me extensive notes in the e-mail noted in the "note" that follows in the full references.
9. D. R. Paoletti T. E. Doom M. L. Raymer, and D. E. Krane Assessing the Implications for Close Relatives in the Event of Similar but Non-Matching DNA Profiles Jurimetrics 3, no. 2 ( 2006 161 75.
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12. The Federal DNA Act and most state DNA collection statutes require that the state expunge (from the DNA databank) the profiles of convicted persons whose convictions are reversed. However, in a glaring gap in logic, these statutes do not address what to do with profiles from persons who are not even suspects. The police often retain these DNA profiles in their own, private "suspect databases." For example, Chicago, Miami, and London, Ohio all keep private police suspect databases. A. B. Chapin Arresting DNA: Privacy Expectations of Free Citizens versus Post-Convicted Persons and the Unconstitutionality of DNA Dragnets Minnesota Law Review 89, no. 6 ( 2005 1842 1874.
13. This case was the subject of a full hour documentary by the television news program, 48 Hours, which aired November 26, 2005.
14. The next segment is drawn from my paper Comparative Perspectives and Competing Explanations: Taking on the Newly Configured Reductionist Challenge to Sociology American Sociological Review ( 2006 1 15.
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18. Id., at 1843, discussing Griffin v. Wisconsin, 107 S. Ct. 3164 (1987).
19. Id., at 1854.
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24. Id.
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26. Miller-El v. Cockrell, 123 S Ct. 1029 ( 2003 at 1038.
27. The British may be in the lead, but the Portuguese have even bigger plans: In early April of 2005, the Portuguese government announced that it intended to collect DNA on all of its residents, all of its inhabitants. See M. J. Boavida Portugal Plans a Forensic Genetic Database of its Entire Population Newropeans Magazine, at http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/index.php?option= com_content&task=view&id=2059&Itemid=121 ( last visited February 16, 2006).
28. See Police aim for DNA on 25% of UK population at http://www.bjhc.co.uk/ news/1/2005/n502020.htm ( last visited February 16, 2006).
29. Note that this was before the bombings in London in early July, 2005.
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31. The website "ancestrybydna.com" is one of several where one can apply for a kit, and then send in a DNA sample. The company then does an analysis and sends back a report with estimates of the proportion of one's ancestry that is purportedly from one of several large continental groupings.
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36. "DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005" was signed into law on January 6, 2006 as Title X of the Violence Against Women Act and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act, Pub. Law 109-162, 119 Stat. 2960.
37. SEC. 1004. AUTHORIZATION TO CONDUCT DNA SAMPLE COLLECTION FROM PERSONS ARRESTED OR DETAINED UNDER FEDERAL AUTHORITY. (a) In General- Section 3 of the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 14135a) is amended-(1) in subsection (a) (A) in paragraph (1), by striking v The Director' and inserting the following: (A) The Attorney General may, as prescribed by the Attorney General in regulation, collect DNA samples from individuals who are arrested or from non-United States persons who are detained under the authority of the United States.
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39. T. Simoncelli Dangerous Excursions: The Case Against Expanding Forensic DNA Databases to Innocent Persons Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 34 ( 2006 390 397. See also in this issue, H. Greely, et al., "Family Ties: The Uses of DNA Offender Databases to Catch Offenders' Kin," Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 34 (2006): 248-262. For an examination of the implications of familial DNA database searching in light of the disproportionate number of African-Americans in U.S. forensic databases. The authors, noting the disproportionate number of African-Americans in the CODIS database, state, "... the way that family forensic DNA puts African-Americans under much greater investigative scrutiny may not be unconstitutional, but seems unfair and quite possibly unwise." Id., at 260.
40. Pub. Law 109-162, 119 Stat. 2960, codified at 42 U.S.C. §14132(a)(1) ( 2005). The amendment retains the prohibition on inclusion of samples voluntarily submitted solely for the purpose of elimination. Id.
41. See Lowe, Supra note 28.
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