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Scenario C: Ancestry testing used to identify a murder suspect
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Scenario C: Ancestry testing used to identify a murder suspect
Should databases designed for family history hobbyists be used to solve crimes?
Your favorite hobby is researching your family history. You have spent countless years finding all the information you could, visiting the towns where your grandparents lived, combing through church records to gather information about births, weddings and funerals.
Genetic genealogy is the use of DNA, combined with traditional research, to construct family trees and find relatives. Online genetic testing has opened up a whole new area of your hobby in recent years. You had your DNA tested by a private company and wanted to use that information to expand your family tree. You decided to upload your DNA information to GEDmatch, which is a non-profit database run by private citizens and is open to anyone who wants to join.
You were shocked to learn that police have been using this database to search for DNA connections to wanted murderers and rapists. Investigators create a profile, using DNA of a likely perpetrator that was collected at the crime scene, and then upload it to GEDmatch. The hope is to find DNA matches - even to distant relatives. Once they find individuals with similar DNA to a likely perpetrator, police investigators can work with ancestry and genealogy researchers to develop a potential list of suspects.
In your results, you learned you are one of the three people in GEDmatch who share a small segment of DNA with the notorious “Golden State Killer” - you and the killer share a relative four generations in the past. Through this information, law enforcement found and arrested Joseph James DeAngelo, who is presently awaiting trial. You never met him, live over 2000 miles away from where he was arrested, and nobody in your family can recall any connection at all - but you still share some DNA. You are what is called a “genetic informant”.
Discussion questions:
1. How do you feel about your unknowing role in the arrest of this serial killer?
2. If GEDmatch gave you a choice to have your DNA searched by police in other investigations, would you allow it or not? Why or why not?
3. Should police be allowed to search DNA databases that were never intended to be part of the criminal justice system? Why or why not?
DNA, Crime, and Law Enforcement
HOMEWORK
Read the article, “From DNA of Family, a Tool to Make Arrests, ” and answer the following questions using the information from the slideshow and/or ideas from the class discussion. Each answer should be at least one paragraph long.
1. What are the benefits of law enforcement using the DNA of a suspect’s relative to try to catch the suspect? What might be concerning about this approach? Explain.
2. It has been estimated that African Americans comprise approximately 40% of the CODIS database, despite comprising about 13% of the United States population. By extension, then, relatives of African-Americans are also more likely to be identified in familial searches of an offender database. What do you think about this discrepancy? Should something be changed to bring this more in line with the racial makeup of the United States population? How important are race and privacy considerations when developing these policies?
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DNA, Crime, and Law Enforcement
QUIZ
Name_________________________________ Date_____________
1. Short answer: List three ways in which forensic DNA is used to solve crimes.
2. What is the type of DNA that is used by the “Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo” to reunite families in Argentina? Why is it a uniquely helpful tool to connect biological grandmothers, mothers, and children?
3. GEDmatch is a database used by genealogists (people who are interested in learning about their family) to construct family trees and find relatives. Recent use of this database by law enforcement to search for people in an effort to make arrests for long-unsolved crimes has caused controversy because:
A) People who added their DNA to GEDmatch didn’t know it would be used by police.
B) People might unknowingly implicate their relatives in a crime.
C) There are not as many rules and guidelines about how to use this database compared to CODIS.
D) All of the above.
4. The only way to have your DNA added to a state or federal criminal database, such as CODIS, is to be convicted of a felony. T/F
5. In addition to being useful to capture and convict criminals, DNA also has been used to free hundreds of people who have been wrongly convicted. T/F
6. If a person’s DNA profile is in a criminal database, a law enforcement agency might be able to use that information to identify and possibly arrest another family member who is suspected of a crime. T/F
7. DNA analysis is a foolproof tool to solve crimes and will likely replace traditional police investigations in the near future. T/F
DNA, Crime, and Law Enforcement
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