NCJ Number
222165
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2008 Pages: 178-182
Date Published
January 2008
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Analysis of burglary and auto-related crime data for Northamptonshire, England, during a 3-year period focused on the link between the deprivation of the neighborhood in which the crime occurred and the level of service provided by crime scene examiners in terms of collecting and analyzing DNA and fingerprint evidence.
Abstract
The study found that the deprivation index of the crime-scene location had no bearing on the time that crime scene examiners spent investigating the scene. This suggests a consistent level of service, expertise, and professionalism offered to victims living in poorer inner city areas compared with victims living in more affluent areas. There was no indication that the recovery of fingerprint evidence declined for crime scenes in poorer areas of the city. The findings for the collection of DNA samples, however, differed according to the deprivation index of the crime scene. Significantly more DNA evidence was collected at crime scenes based on the affluence of the crime-scene neighborhood. This may be because more affluent victim-witnesses are forensically aware of DNA to the extent of being able to suggest which items at the crime scene may be important for DNA evidence. Volume crime forensic data for the period from April 1, 2003, and March 31, 2006, were used for the study. The dataset consisted of 24,276 activities related to burglary of a dwelling, burglary of commercial buildings, theft of a motor vehicle, and theft from a motor vehicle. 3 tables, 5 figures, and 23 references