Familial searching: practice and ethics of forensic genetics
Location: Seminar Room, 4th Floor, Claremont Bridge Building, Newcastle University, NE1 7RU
Time/Date: 18th April 2012, 13:00 - 14:00
The use of forensic DNA technologies in criminal proceedings has changed considerably since its discovery in the mid 1980s. Its initial use on a case-by-case basis in mostly violent crimes has been supplemented by its routine utilization in volume crimes. In addition, the national DNA database of England and Wales (NDNAD) matches many subjects genetically to DNA traces collected at crime scenes. Hence, the NDNAD has been rendered a mechanism that provides the police with names of persons who may be the perpetrator of an unsolved crime.
In the past decade, the police have been using a technique called ‘familial searching’. A familial search is a search algorithm that tries to identify individuals in the DNA database who possibly are close relatives of the potential suspects; it is a method to identify perpetrators through DNA of their biological relatives. The police in England and Wales have utilized this technology successfully in several cases. Yet, and despite these successes, familial searching has also been critically discussed by inter alia privacy advocates and scholars from bioethics and sociology.In this presentation, Dr Chris Maguire will explain familial searching and provide the audience with some data regarding the efficacy of familial searching. Dr Victor Toom will address some of the social, ethical and legal implications of this technique.
Dr Chris Maguire joined the Northumbria University Centre for Forensic Science (NUCFS) as Reader in Forensic Science in October 2010 after a thirty year career with the Forensic Science Service. Chris is an internationally recognized expert in DNA familial searching.Dr Victor Toom joined NUCFS after receiving his PhD in Social Science from the University of Amsterdam in 2010. Victor has published widely on the use of forensic DNA technologies and governance of forensic genetic practices.
This seminar is free and open to all.Published: 2nd November 2011