NCJ Number
213534
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2006 Pages: 61-75
Date Published
January 2006
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study assessed the effectiveness of Canada's DNA Identification Act by examining whether 106 perpetrators of sex-related murders and 85 perpetrators of sexual assaults had earlier convictions for offenses that required offenders to provide a DNA profile to the National DNA Data Bank (NDDB) under the act's provisions.
Abstract
A majority (68 percent) of the murderers and 59 percent of the assaulters had no previous convictions for primary offenses designated in the DNA Identification Act for DNA collection; and 50 percent of the murderers and 37 percent of the assaulters had no convictions for secondary offenses designated in the act for DNA collection; 39 percent of the murderers and 28 percent of the assaulters had no prior convictions for any offense designated for DNA collection. Overall, the largest number of prior convictions for the sample was for offenses not designated in the act for DNA collection. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of the NDDB in identifying suspects in current sex-related cases from NDDB matches will depend on a more statistically based selection of offenses designated for DNA collection. Clearly, a broader range of primary and secondary offenses must be designated for DNA collection if the NDDB is to be useful in identifying sexual predators. The study methodology involved checking the offenders' criminal records for convictions related to primary and secondary offenses designated for DNA collection in the DNA Identification Act. Convictions for nondesignated offenses were also noted. 4 tables, 4 notes, and 29 references