Investigation Into the Performance of Methods for Adjusting for Sampling Uncertainty in DNA Likelihood Ratio Calculations

• NCJ Number: 236684
• Journal: Forensic Science International: Genetics Volume: 5 Issue: 5 Dated: November 2011 Pages: 512-516
• Author(s): James M. Curran; John S. Buckleton
• Date Published: November 2011
• Length: 5 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Ireland

Annotation

This paper reconsiders the performance of the methods using 15 locus Identifiler profiles, rather than the 6 locus data used in a previous study.

Abstract

There is a variety of methods for assessing sampling uncertainty in likelihood ratio calculations in DNA casework. Sampling uncertainty arises because all DNA statistical methods rely on a database of collected profiles. Such databases can be regarded as a sample from the population of interest. The act of taking a sample incurs sampling uncertainty. In some circumstances it may be desirable to provide some estimate of this uncertainty. The authors have addressed this topic in two previous publications. In this paper the authors reconsider the performance of the methods using 15 locus Identifiler profiles, rather than the 6 locus data used in a previous study. The authors also examine the differences in performance observed when using a uniform prior versus a 1/k prior in the Bayesian highest posterior density (HPD) method of Curran et al. (Published Abstract)