Abstract
The political and financial investments in the implementation of forensic DNA databases and the ethical issues related to their use and expansion justify inquiries into their performance and general utility. The main function of a forensic DNA database is to produce matches between individuals and crime scene stains, which requires a constant input of individual profiles and crime scene stains. This is conditioned, among other factors, by the legislation, namely the criteria for inclusion of profiles and the periods of time and conditions for their retention and/or deletion. This article aims to provide an overview of the different legislative models for DNA databasing in Europe and ponder if wider inclusion criteria – and, consequently, database size – translates into more matches between profiles of crime scene stains and included individuals (performance ratio). The legislation governing forensic DNA databases in 22 countries in the European Union was analysed in order to propose a typology of two major groups of legislative criteria for inclusion/retention of profiles that can be classified as having either expansive effects or restrictive effects. We argue that expansive criteria for inclusion and retention of profiles do not necessarily translate into significant gains in output performance.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2195-7819-9-12) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Forensic DNA databases constitute an important investigative resource in contemporary criminal justice systems
Considering the criteria for the inclusion and removal of DNA profiles from forensic databases stated on legislation of the 22 European Union (EU) countries analysed in this article, it was possible to identify two main groups: countries with legislation classified as having expansive effects (Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Scotland, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom (England and Wales)); and countries with legislation classified as having restrictive effects (Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden)
In the group of countries in which legislation is considered to have restrictive effects, the condition generally imposed for the inclusion of profiles in databases is that an individual is suspected or convicted of a crime that involves a potential or effective prison sentence, or the fact that the individual subjected to a collection of a biological sample has committed crimes that are considered serious (Table 1)
Summary
Forensic DNA databases constitute an important investigative resource in contemporary criminal justice systems. There is the argument that forensic DNA databases have the potential to prevent and deter crime (Cutter 2006), and this has been proclaimed in various jurisdictions as a justification for extending the inclusion criteria (Taylor et al 2007). It has been noted by some authors that the potential deterrent effect and utility of a forensic DNA database has to take into account characteristics of criminal behaviour It has been noted by some authors that the potential deterrent effect and utility of a forensic DNA database has to take into account characteristics of criminal behaviour (e.g. Kazemian et al 2010) and adaptations to forensic circumstances (e.g. (Beauregard and Bouchard 2010), and that a DNA profile in a database may only be useful for a relatively short period of time – either because some criminal offenders in the database may have already ended their “criminal career”, or because those who have only just begun their criminal career may commit a variety of crimes for some time before their profile is identified and included in the database (Leary and Pease 2003; McCartney 2006)
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