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Beyond the Cold Hit: Measuring the Impact of the National DNA Data Bank on Public Safety at the City and County Level

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Matthew Gabriel ,
Cherisse Boland  and
Cydne Holt
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Extract

Criminalistics laboratories routinely provide cold hits in police investigations by comparing DNA profiles from crime scenes to offenders residing in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Forensic DNA analysis is often glamorized in popular culture, where the perpetrators are identified and crimes solved within a single television episode. In reality forensic DNA hits can identify perpetrators of violent offenses, link multiple crimes committed by the same individual, or exclude suspects and exonerate the falsely accused. Unlike the media portrayals, downstream activities after a DNA identification or cold hit are often more complex. While the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) cites a national Data Bank of more than 7.2 million DNA profiles and 94,000 identifications nationwide, an in-depth analysis of public safety improvements made with CODIS is currently unavailable to forensic practitioners and public policy analysts. A review of case resolutions for 198 DNA database hits in San Francisco created performance metrics to provide a concrete measure of the effectiveness of DNA databasing efforts at the city and county level.

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Independent
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , Summer 2010 , pp. 396 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2010

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References

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As many of the DNA cold hits described here have only recently reached case resolution, the authors could not measure future “time to crime” estimates. In other words, after the prisoners' release for crimes with a DNA cold hit, a future study to understand recidivism rates might shed light on long-term CODIS impact.Google Scholar
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