Forensic DNA Data Banks and Data Mining

This chapter discusses how comparing the genetic profiles from crime scene evidence with the profiles in a DNA database can identify persons of interest. Forensic data banks contain DNA extracts as well as computerized databases of coded DNA profiles of convicted offenders, arrestees, and crime scene samples. Searching forensic DNA data banks has provided key investigative leads in thousands of criminal investigations. The chapter explains familial searching, the search for a “partial” match of the evidence profile with a database profile, which leads to the identification of a suspect who is related to the individual in the database, and discusses several high-profile cases that have used this strategy. The recent cases solved by searching ancestry-based DNA databases (genealogics or forensic genetic genealogy) are discussed, as are the metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of DNA database mining as well as the legal and policy issues involved in balancing public safety with privacy interests.