Key issues in DNA profiling and databasing: implications for governance

Abstract

INTRODUCTION On 4 December 2008, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) delivered its Grand Chamber Judgment in the case of S and Marper v. the United Kingdom (2008). The judgment dealt a major blow to the national forensic DNA database (United Kingdom National DNA Database (NDNAD)) in England and Wales, the largest forensic DNA database in Europe. That judgment informs the purpose of this chapter, which is to review key issues of DNA profiling and databasing, many of which contribute to contesting forensic DNA technologies as an infallible means to truth finding in the criminal justice system (e.g. Lynch et al . 2008). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications that these issues have for the governance of DNA forensic profiling and databasing. The case of S and Marper v. the United Kingdom (2008) was brought to the ECHR by Michael Marper and another young man known only as ‘S’, whose fingerprints and DNA profiles were stored in the English police database following their arrest in 2001. Charges had been dropped in both the case of Marper (arrested on harassment charges) and of S (at age 11 arrested for attempted robbery). In the absence of convictions, both men demanded their fingerprints and DNA data be removed from the database.