Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
307
result(s) for
"Forensic Genetics - legislation "
Sort by:
Genetics, crime and justice
As our understanding of genetics increases, its application to criminal justice becomes more significant. This timely book examines the use of genetic information both in criminal investigations and during the trial process. It discusses current scientific understanding and considers some potential legal, ethical and sociological issues with the use of genetic information. The author draws together debates from scientists, ethicists, sociologists and lawyers in order to understand how the criminal justice system currently reacts, and ought to react, to the new challenges presented by genetic evidence. She asks the important question of where priorities should lie: whether with society's desire to be protected from crime, or with an individual's desire to be protected from an unwanted intrusion into his or her genome. Topics include rights of privacy and consent in obtaining DNA samples, evidentiary issues in court, the impact of genetic evidence on punishment theory and sentencing, and genetic discrimination. This book will be of use to criminal and medical law students, along with academics, practitioners and policymakers interested in exploring the various criminal law issues in relation to genetics. It will also be of interest to criminal justice, philosophy, ethics, sociology and psychology students and academics looking explore the legal issues involved in such a topic.-- Source other than Library of Congress.
Book
Associations between forensic loci and expression levels of neighboring genes may compromise medical privacy
A set of 20 short tandem repeats (STRs) is used by the US criminal justice system to identify suspects and to maintain a database of genetic profiles for individuals who have been previously convicted or arrested. Some of these STRs were identified in the 1990s, with a preference for markers in putative gene deserts to avoid forensic profiles revealing protected medical information. We revisit that assumption, investigating whether forensic genetic profiles reveal information about gene-expression variation or potential medical information. We find six significant correlations (false discovery rate = 0.23) between the forensic STRs and the expression levels of neighboring genes in lymphoblastoid cell lines. We explore possible mechanisms for these associations, showing evidence compatible with forensic STRs causing expression variation or being in linkage disequilibrium with a causal locus in three cases and weaker or potentially spurious associations in the other three cases. Together, these results suggest that forensic genetic loci may reveal expression levels and, perhaps, medical information.
Journal Article
Implementation of ISO/IEC 17025 in forensic genetics laboratories in Brazil
In Brazil, while there are legal regulations establishing technical requirements to promote quality management systems in forensic genetics laboratories based on ISO standards, accreditation is not yet mandatory. In this study, we assess the compliance of Brazilian forensic genetics laboratories with ISO/IEC 17025 and try to identify the challenges these labs face in meeting those standards. A survey was responded by the 28 laboratories of the Integrated Network of Genetic Profile Databases (RIBPG) in order to gauge compliance with eight critical criteria: personnel management, equipment management, equipment calibration, method validation, proficiency testing, internal auditing, risk management, and critical review. The results indicate that laboratories reported greater compliance with ISO/IEC 17025 clauses already mandated and audited under the current national quality standard (Resolution 12 of the CG-RIBPG), such as pessoal competence (64 %) and equipment management (57 %). However, the results also revealed challenges in meeting some ISO requirements, especially those related to procurement of external services such as calibration (29 %) and proficiency testing through accredited providers (14 %). This article highlights the need for strategic public policy projects to support forensic laboratory accreditation, including capacity-building, specialized training, and monitoring of implementation. External motivators for accreditation and strategies tailored to the specific needs of the laboratories are also necessary.
●Survey assessed compliance of Brazilian forensic genetics labs with ISO/IEC 17025.●Challenges identified include external calibration and proficiency testing.●89 % of laboratories found personnel competence criteria easy to meet.●Strategic public policies needed to support accreditation in forensic genetics.●Results emphasize tailored strategies to address labs' specific accreditation barriers.
Journal Article
Investigative genetic genealogy practices warranting policy attention: Results of a modified policy Delphi
A technique known as investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) was first introduced to criminal investigations in 2018, and it has since been used by U.S. law enforcement to help identify hundreds of criminal perpetrators and unidentified human remains. As expertise in IGG grows, policymakers have shown interest in regulating it. To help inform these efforts and to promote coherence in IGG governance as it expands, we recruited experts representing a spectrum of IGG-relevant professions and perspectives to identify and prioritize IGG practices for policy attention and to develop policy options for addressing them. In two rounds of a modified policy Delphi, 31 participants prioritized nine IGG practices for policy attention. These top priority practices relate to: consent and notification; case eligibility and criteria; data management, privacy, and security; and governance and accountability. Participants expressed a range of opinions, some strongly held, and did not reach complete consensus with respect to any of the practices. However, convergence was strongest with respect to law enforcement participation in direct-to-consumer genetic genealogy databases against terms of service, which a large majority opposed and almost half evaluated as top priority for policy attention. Participants also voiced strong and consistent concern about management of data and samples collected and generated during IGG and the governance of private laboratories involved in IGG. Our study demonstrates the feasibility and value of engaging with diverse experts over an extended period on a pressing matter of public policy and provides a needed empirical foundation for IGG policymaking.
Journal Article
Hungarian legislation regarding implementing a forensic DNA elimination database
The inception of forensic DNA elimination database represents a pivotal advancement in forensic science, aiming to streamline the process of distinguishing between DNA found at crime scenes and that of individuals involved in the investigation process, such as law enforcement personnel and forensic lab staff. In subsequent phases, once familiarity with the database is achieved by its administrators and other stakeholders, and they have accrued sufficient experience, the possibility of expanding the database to encompass first responders—including firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and other emergency services personnel—can be contemplated. Key challenges in managing these databases encompass the grounds for collecting samples, ensuring the integrity of both samples and profiles, along with the duration of retention, access to the database, and the protocols to follow when a match is found in the database. This paper outlines the conceptual and detailed legislative framework in Hungary, where the forensic DNA elimination database was introduced in 2022.
•Elimination DNA databases help exclude individuals with legitimate reasons for being at a crime scene by compiling their DNA profiles.•The utilization of the elimination database was introduced in Hungary on January 1, 2022; however, a systematic analysis of the regulation suggests improvements to the regulation.
Journal Article
Familial DNA analysis and criminal investigation: Usage, downsides and privacy concerns
•Familial DNA analysis is a valuable tool for criminal investigation.•Strict compliance is necessary for the implementation of familial DNA analysis.•Ethical, legal and privacy concerns limit the wide usage of familial DNA analysis.
Since the discovery of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) capability in forensic investigation, it has been an important part of the criminal justice system. In most criminal cases DNA profile originating from evidence sample collected from the crime scene is compared with the DNA profile from the reference sample. However, when a reference sample is not available for comparison, familial DNA analysis can provide important investigation leads in a criminal investigation process by identifying an individual. Moreover, this analysis is also proving effective in the identification of ethnicity and ancestry of an individual. A number of different methodologies and software are being used for familial DNA analysis. This review describes the importance of familial DNA analysis, methodologies used for familial DNA searching and identification, and its advantages in forensic. Moreover, ethical, legal and social issues associated with familial DNA analysis have also been discussed along with future directions for the proper implementation of this technology.
Journal Article
Testing the Effectiveness of an International Conservation Agreement: Marketplace Forensics and CITES Caviar Trade Regulation
The international wildlife trade is a key threat to biodiversity. Temporal genetic marketplace monitoring can determine if wildlife trade regulation efforts such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) are succeeding. Protected under CITES effective 1997, sturgeons and paddlefishes, the producers of black caviar, are flagship CITES species.
We test whether CITES has limited the amount of fraudulent black caviar reaching the marketplace. Using mitochondrial DNA-based methods, we compare mislabeling in caviar and meat purchased in the New York City area pre and post CITES listing. Our recent sampling of this market reveals a decrease in mislabeled caviar (2006-2008; 10%; n = 90) compared to pre-CITES implementation (1995-1996; 19%; n = 95). Mislabeled caviar was found only in online purchase (n = 49 online/41 retail).
Stricter controls on importing and exporting as per CITES policies may be having a positive conservation effect by limiting the amount of fraudulent caviar reaching the marketplace. Sturgeons and paddlefishes remain a conservation priority, however, due to continued overfishing and habitat degradation. Other marine and aquatic species stand to benefit from the international trade regulation that can result from CITES listing.
Journal Article
Social and ethical aspects of forensic genetics: A critical review
This review describes the social and ethical responses to the history of innovations in forensic genetics and their application to criminal investigations. Following an outline of the three recurrent social perspectives that have informed these responses (crime management, due process, and genetic surveillance), it goes on to introduce the repertoire of ethical considerations by describing a series of key reports that have shaped subsequent commentaries on forensic DNA profiling and databasing. Four major ethical concerns form the focus of the remainder of the paper (dignity, privacy, justice, and social solidarity), and key features of forensic genetic practice are examined in the light of these concerns. The paper concludes with a discussion of the concept of \"proportionality\" as a resource for balancing the social and ethical risks and benefits of the use of forensic genetics in support of criminal justice.
Journal Article
Colombian forensic genetics as a form of public science: The role of race, nation and common sense in the stabilization of DNA populations
This article examines the role that vernacular notions of racialized-regional difference play in the constitution and stabilization of DNA populations in Colombian forensic science, in what we frame as a process of public science. In public science, the imaginations of the scientific world and common-sense public knowledge are integral to the production and circulation of science itself. We explore the origins and circulation of a scientific object - 'La Tabla', published in Paredes et al. and used in genetic forensic identification procedures - among genetic research institutes, forensic genetics laboratories and courtrooms in Bogota. We unveil the double life of this central object of forensic genetics. On the one hand, La Tabla enjoys an indisputable public place in the processing of forensic genetic evidence in Colombia (paternity cases, identification of bodies, etc.). On the other hand, the relations it establishes between 'race', geography and genetics are questioned among population geneticists in Colombia. Although forensic technicians are aware of the disputes among population geneticists, they use and endorse the relations established between genetics, 'race' and geography because these fit with common-sense notions of visible bodily difference and the regionalization of race in the Colombian nation.
Journal Article
TrueAllele Casework on Virginia DNA Mixture Evidence: Computer and Manual Interpretation in 72 Reported Criminal Cases
Mixtures are a commonly encountered form of biological evidence that contain DNA from two or more contributors. Laboratory analysis of mixtures produces data signals that usually cannot be separated into distinct contributor genotypes. Computer modeling can resolve the genotypes up to probability, reflecting the uncertainty inherent in the data. Human analysts address the problem by simplifying the quantitative data in a threshold process that discards considerable identification information. Elevated stochastic threshold levels potentially discard more information. This study examines three different mixture interpretation methods. In 72 criminal cases, 111 genotype comparisons were made between 92 mixture items and relevant reference samples. TrueAllele computer modeling was done on all the evidence samples, and documented in DNA match reports that were provided as evidence for each case. Threshold-based Combined Probability of Inclusion (CPI) and stochastically modified CPI (mCPI) analyses were performed as well. TrueAllele's identification information in 101 positive matches was used to assess the reliability of its modeling approach. Comparison was made with 81 CPI and 53 mCPI DNA match statistics that were manually derived from the same data. There were statistically significant differences between the DNA interpretation methods. TrueAllele gave an average match statistic of 113 billion, CPI averaged 6.68 million, and mCPI averaged 140. The computer was highly specific, with a false positive rate under 0.005%. The modeling approach was precise, having a factor of two within-group standard deviation. TrueAllele accuracy was indicated by having uniformly distributed match statistics over the data set. The computer could make genotype comparisons that were impossible or impractical using manual methods. TrueAllele computer interpretation of DNA mixture evidence is sensitive, specific, precise, accurate and more informative than manual interpretation alternatives. It can determine DNA match statistics when threshold-based methods cannot. Improved forensic science computation can affect criminal cases by providing reliable scientific evidence.
Journal Article