National DNA databanks were initially established to catalogue the
identities of violent criminals and sex offenders. However, since the
mid-1990s, forensic DNA databanks have in some cases expanded to include
people merely arrested, regardless of whether they've been charged or
convicted of a crime. The public is largely unaware of these changes and
the advances that biotechnology and forensic DNA science have made
possible. Yet many citizens are beginning to realize that the unfettered
collection of DNA profiles might compromise our basic freedoms and
rights.
Two leading authors on medical ethics, science policy, and civil
liberties take a hard look at how the United States has balanced the use
of DNA technology, particularly the use of DNA databanks in criminal
justice, with the privacy rights of its citizenry. Krimsky and
Simoncelli analyze the constitutional, ethical, and sociopolitical
implications of expanded DNA collection in the United States and compare
these findings to trends in the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia,
Germany, and Italy. They explore many controversial topics, including
the legal precedent for taking DNA from juveniles, the search for
possible family members of suspects in DNA databases, the launch of "DNA
dragnets" among local populations, and the warrantless acquisition by
police of so-called abandoned DNA in the search for suspects. Most
intriguing, Krimsky and Simoncelli explode the myth that DNA profiling
is infallible, which has profound implications for criminal justice.