NCJ Number
179731
Journal
Law Enforcement Quarterly Volume: 28 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer/Fall 1999 Pages: 13-15
Date Published
1999
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article reviews DNA typing of convicted criminals.
Abstract
State and national databases of DNA profiling information on prison and jail inmates are relatively new. All 50 States have statutes requiring that defendants convicted of violent crimes provide a sample of their blood or saliva. However not all States are actively pursuing DNA data banking, because they lack the necessary money and analysts to keep pace with the influx of samples from new inmates. Almost 40,000 samples have been profiled and entered into databases, but using technology that is outdated and cannot "communicate" with systems now used by nearly all laboratories around the world. In addition, defendants who are released from court or serve relatively short local jail sentences may be among the more than 1 million individuals from whom samples are "owed" but not collected. The article recounts the case of a rapist who was identified 6 years after the event through information in a DNA databank.