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Prejudice, Stigma, and DNA Databases

Helen Wallace

in Race and the Genetic Revolution: Science, Myth, and Culture

This chapter discusses how and why innocent people whose DNA profiles are included in DNA databases may be vulnerable to stigmatization or prejudicial treatment. It draws on experiences from the ... More

This chapter discusses how and why innocent people whose DNA profiles are included in DNA databases may be vulnerable to stigmatization or prejudicial treatment. It draws on experiences from the operation of the National DNA Database (NDNAD) in Britain. DNA profiles within a database allow a form of biological tagging or “biosurveillance,” which can be used to establish whether someone has been present at a particular location. Although DNA has helped the criminal justice system, the length of time a DNA profile is stored in a databank and the amount of information listed may lead to stigmatization or prejudicial treatment. The practice of indefinite retention has been criticized by many and was eventually challenged before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), who ruled unanimously that the UK Government was in breach of the right to privacy.Less

Genetic Databases and the First Signs of Regulatory Opportunity

Roger Brownsword

in Rights, Regulation, and the Technological Revolution

This chapter focuses on genetic databases, specifically their use as a regulatory instrument. It begins by considering forensic collections, entertaining the thought that in a community of rights, it ... More

This chapter focuses on genetic databases, specifically their use as a regulatory instrument. It begins by considering forensic collections, entertaining the thought that in a community of rights, it might be plausible to argue for a comprehensive population-wide DNA database. The chapter then turns to collections for public health purposes. If the state is justified in compelling the supply of DNA samples for forensic purposes, there might seem to be a case for compelling participation in public health biobanking projects. It argues that agents who aspire to moral community need to be particularly mindful of the corrosive impact of a (bio)technological approach to social control whether concerned with the prevention of crime or the promotion of public health. If such an approach simply reduces the risks to which agents are exposed, all well and good; but if the effect is to corrode the conditions that underlie the very project of moral community itself, then this is a risk which no community of rights can afford to ignore and which it surely will not wish to run.Less

The U.K. National DNA Database

in Truth Machine: The Contentious History of DNA Fingerprinting

This chapter focuses on the National DNA Database (NDNAD) of England and Wales, the oldest and largest national DNA intelligence database, the daily operation of which is managed by FSS Ltd., a ... More

This chapter focuses on the National DNA Database (NDNAD) of England and Wales, the oldest and largest national DNA intelligence database, the daily operation of which is managed by FSS Ltd., a former executive agency of the Home Office. The DNA profiles at the NDNAD are from three different sources: casework profiles from unknown persons, criminal justice profiles, and elimination or volunteer profiles.Less

Selective Arrests, an Ever-Expanding DNA Forensic Database, and the Specter of an Early Twenty-First-Century Equivalent of Phrenology

Troy Duster

in Tactical Biopolitics: Art, Activism, and Technoscience

This chapter discusses the expansion of DNA databases. It begins by pointing out the systematic bias, by race, of a full range of behaviors displayed across the criminal justice system, from the ... More

This chapter discusses the expansion of DNA databases. It begins by pointing out the systematic bias, by race, of a full range of behaviors displayed across the criminal justice system, from the decisions by police at the point of stop, search, and arrest, through the sentencing guidelines and practices, to the rates of incarceration. The chapter then turns to empirical evidence that documents recent developments in the literature of forensic science which claim to be able to predict “ethnic affiliation” from population-specific allele frequencies. It is the relationship between these two developments that is the source of the chapter's final point: the looming danger of easily crafted DNA-based research programs and the consequent misattribution of genetic causes of crime. The chapter argues that such research could easily segue into the moral equivalent of a new phrenology for the twenty-first century, something which must be acknowledged, intercepted, and averted.Less

Enthusiasm and Skepticism

Jennifer Hochschild

in Genomic Politics: How the Revolution in Genomic Science Is Shaping American Society

Chapter 4 examines two of the cells in the basic framework: “Enthusiasm” about the benefits of using the science of genetic inheritance, and “Skepticism” about the risks of using the science of ... More

Chapter 4 examines two of the cells in the basic framework: “Enthusiasm” about the benefits of using the science of genetic inheritance, and “Skepticism” about the risks of using the science of genetic inheritance. For each viewpoint, this chapter explores arenas within medical and scientific research (including gene therapy, the search for Covid-19 vaccines, and gene editing), criminal justice (including forensic DNA databases, rapid DNA testing, and exoneration), and biogeographical ancestry (including racial and ethnic ancestry testing, race-based medicine, and deep ancestry). Chapter 4 provides evidence to support both excitement about the benefits of genomic science and concern about its risks and costs.Less

Bayesians, Frequentists, and the Dna Database Search Controversy

in Truth Machine: The Contentious History of DNA Fingerprinting

This chapter, which discusses the controversy among statisticians in the United States over the analysis of DNA database “cold hits,” considers the defense use of Bayesian analysis to unpack and ... More

This chapter, which discusses the controversy among statisticians in the United States over the analysis of DNA database “cold hits,” considers the defense use of Bayesian analysis to unpack and neutralize the impressive random match probabilities presented by the prosecution's experts. It suggests that Bayesian treatments can potentially open up a creative repackaging of evidence that disrupts settled legal and vernacular distinctions between expert and commonsense knowledge.Less

Locating the Public in the Basic Framework

Jennifer Hochschild

in Genomic Politics: How the Revolution in Genomic Science Is Shaping American Society

Relying on two surveys of randomly selected American adults, Chapter 7 first locates the American public within the basic framework’s four quadrants. The surveys—Genomics: Knowledge, Attitudes, and ... More

Relying on two surveys of randomly selected American adults, Chapter 7 first locates the American public within the basic framework’s four quadrants. The surveys—Genomics: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Policies 1 (GKAP 1), and GKAP 2—were conducted in 2011 and 2017, respectively. Both are stratified by race and ethnicity; GKAP 1 includes almost 4,000 respondents and GKAP 2 includes almost 2,000. Survey items address perceptions of genetic influence and levels of technology optimism; in combination, these items enable respondents to be located in the four cells. Chapter 7 then explores demographic characteristics of individuals in particular cells, and views as revealed through coded responses to open-ended questions. Key findings include: about three-fifths of Americans are Enthusiatic; genetics knowledge is associated with Enthusiasm; racial or partisan differences have little impact on quadrant location; the Hopeful and especially Enthusiasts are committed to medical research or to criminal justice; Skeptics are mistrustful and protective of privacy; Rejecters seek withdrawal and self-protection.Less

Introduction: “There Be Monsters”?

Jennifer Hochschild

in Genomic Politics: How the Revolution in Genomic Science Is Shaping American Society

Chapter 1 introduces four societal uses of genomic science that demonstrate its breadth, importance, and political complexity. They are race-based medicine, racial or ethnic ancestry testing, use of ... More

Chapter 1 introduces four societal uses of genomic science that demonstrate its breadth, importance, and political complexity. They are race-based medicine, racial or ethnic ancestry testing, use of DNA in the criminal justice system, and prenatal gene testing and therapy. Although most people endorse the ideas of appropriate medication, finding one’s roots, correct determination of guilt or innocence, and healthy births, each of these uses of genomic science is intensely controversial. In parallel to their benefits, these uses evoke concerns about eugenics, racial essentialism, surveillance, and discrimination. This chapter depicts each use and its controversies, outlining the contours of Genomic Politics.Less

Developments in DNA Profiling Techniques and Technologies

Cheryl Allsop

in Cold Case Reviews: DNA, Detective Work and Unsolved Major Crimes

This chapter provides a brief history of developments in genetic profiling, noting the advances in profiling techniques from the initial discovery by Sir Alec Jeffreys of what was then termed DNA ... More

This chapter provides a brief history of developments in genetic profiling, noting the advances in profiling techniques from the initial discovery by Sir Alec Jeffreys of what was then termed DNA ‘fingerprinting’ through to familial searching (that is, the ability to search the NDNAD for the DNA profile of potential close relatives of a suspect when the suspect’s DNA is not on the NDNAD). An overview of what DNA is, noting how individuals are identified and differentiated from each other, is explained in order to demonstrate how these progressive advances have benefited cold case reviews.Less

Disputes over Genomic Science Are Not Partisan

Jennifer Hochschild

in Genomic Politics: How the Revolution in Genomic Science Is Shaping American Society

In the contemporary United States, most important societal disputes have become politicized, with the result that there are Republican and Democratic positions to which partisans largely adhere. ... More

In the contemporary United States, most important societal disputes have become politicized, with the result that there are Republican and Democratic positions to which partisans largely adhere. Interestingly, that is not the case for societal uses of genomic science; controversies surrounding genomics are largely nonpartisan, or its uses are not even considered controversial. Chapter 3 demonstrates this unusual pattern by examining American elected officials’ unanimous support for forensic DNA databases and their silence on scientific DNA databases, the lack of partisanship in legislation and funding for genomics research, and the absence of controversy in the courts around genomics.Less