Familial DNA testing to find suspects?

[vaskidmark]

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/news/2010/oct/15/board-recommends-familial-dna-testing-ar-565713/

The article is pretty fuzzy, but the gist is that they are talking about DNA testing to find relatives of sex crime suspects, so they can then find the perp.

I remember when The Place Where Great Britain Used to Be tried in the late 70's (??) to get DNA samples from two or three towns worth of folks in order to narrow down who the mad rapist was.  That caused quite a stink on this side of the pond, while almost everybody on that side exfept the actual rapist went merrily along with the program.  The guy was ID's basically when there were only three or four men left who had not given DNA samples and the not-guilty ones were eliminated iirc by blood typing of their relatives.  [It was pretty much the first forensic use of DNA typing if that will help fix the date.]

Now Virginia wants to join California and one other state in tagging family members to see if that can lead to to actual perp.

I've got some serious reservations about adding DNA samples willy-nilly to the existing database, especially since there are several hundred samples of convicted offenders sitting in cold storage now that have not actually been analyzed/typed, or processing samples from relatives ahead of those samples from a convicted individual.  In addition, it seems like an expendature of funds that could be applied to some better and perhaps more worthwhile endeavor(s).

stay safe.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

folks have already been nailed  a near match and they checked out his kin


http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=127140

[BridgeRunner]

Public perception of forensic use of DNA is so distorted that a clever prosecutor and an inept defense attorney can convict the innocent using DNA evidence.  Expanding DNA databases for forensic use to include non-suspects seems to be a Bad Idea.  Add the CSI effect, and it seems like a REALLY Bad Idea.

Sure DNA is easy to get.  The data obtained, however, is expensive to analyze, store, and retrieve.  As the owner of some seriously messed up DNA, I'd just as soon it stay that way--and that no massive budget be allocated in that direction.  And I'm only genetically related to one felon.

[Thor]

Sunday, August 21, 2005 - 7:00 pm ET
Inaccurate DNA Test Results
By: Lei | 201 Comments
previous post | next post

When a former employee of Washington hairdresser Andre Chreky accused him of being the father of her teenage son, he knew that couldn’t be the case. But a DNA paternity test conducted by Laboratory Corp. of America, or LabCorp, one of the largest paternity testers in the country and the state of Virginia’s exclusive contractor, said that he was with 99.99 percent certainty.

Then it turned out that LabCorp was woefully understaffed with dire consequences for the accuracy of DNA test results and the people affected by them. At LabCorp, only five people review data from DNA tests and make paternity determinations. One supervisor testified at Chreky’s trial contesting the results of the DNA test that he worked 10-hour shifts during which he issued an average of one paternity report every four minutes.

    DNA experts say Chreky’s case underscores a growing problem in the burgeoning field of DNA testing: People make mistakes, and people collect the DNA samples and perform the analysis. So, they say, although DNA is as reliable as ever as a definitive science, the people reading and analyzing that science are imperfect. And the volume of DNA testing keeps rising.

People do make mistakes but Anthony Chreky didn’t make one with the woman who claimed he was the father of her son. After two years in court, the judge ruled in Chreky’s favor but he’ll never be able to claim back the time he spent worrying, the money he paid to support a son he didn’t father, and the resources he used to fight the wrongful paternity case.

As much as I believe DNA tests can revolutionize medicine and our world at large, they are as prone to error as any other technology. Whenever possible, get a second opinion or confirmatory test.

http://blisstree.com/feel/inaccurate-dna-test-results/

If this is any indication, then that's an indication of a HUGE problem.

And here: http://www.heraldscotland.com/dna-testing-is-potentially-inaccurate-and-harmful-1.890380

Then, there are people who have "planted" DNA, synthesized DNA and replicated DNA.

[sanglant]

i say the money would be better spent offering free self defense, and combat firearms training to the women/young women that are likely to be targets.

for that matter, if it works here we should export the program to Africa etc.