Broadcaster: BBC Radio4
Year: 2021
Genre: Documentary, Factual
Duration: 37 minutes
URL: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/clip/202870
In this fascinating radio documentary, Professor Turi King, looks at the growing role of genetic evidence in criminal justice. Starting from the invention of Genetic Fingerprinting in 1984, the episode moves on to discuss the emergence of Genetic Genealogy and latterly Forensic Phenotyping in criminal cases. We have previously considered the history of DNA Fingerprinting in significant detail on this site (e.g. see this post), so this entry will focus on the more recent development.
The UK established a National DNA database (NDNAD) in 1995. Initially there was little controversy about this measure, however changes in the law about criteria for inclusion led to growing unease. In 2001, the Forensic Science Service introduced Familial Searching, enabling you to interrogate the existing records (which have, at times, included as many as 6 million people) for close relatives, allowing police to home in on a suspect. An early case involved Craig Harman, who was found guilty of manslaughter when he dropped a brick through a lorry window, killing the driver (see this report).
A number of records of innocent people were purged from the NDNAD, following a successful challenge in 2008 regarding infringement of privacy and personal data. In the interim, however, there has been a dramatic fall in the price of genome sequencing, and the rise in “direct to consumer” DTC genetic testing companies, such as Ancestry and 23andMe. This has allowed the emergence of private citizens acting as Genetic Genealogists and offering advice on potential suspects to police forces.
The programme includes an interview with Colleen Fitzpatrick, described as the “Mother of Genetic Genealogy”. In 2014, she exploited the correlation between family names (inherited via the male line in many cultures) with analysis of the STR locus on the Y chromosome (which only men usually possess). In this way, she was able to suggest to police in Phoenix, Arizona that the perpetrator of a decade-old unsolved murder almost certainly had the surname Miller.
More recently, there was success and controversy when it transpired that police had uploaded crime scene samples to the FamilyTreeDNA database to identify the notorious Golden State Killer (details here). This was a massive breakthrough, but users of such genealogical DNA services were divided as to the potential infringement of their civil liberties given that this was not their expectation when they has signed up.
Having kept a reasonably keen eye on the field over the years, I was familiar with the story up until this point. There were, however, a couple of other recent developments towards the end of the episode that were new to me.
The first was the use of DNA databases to catch up with sex tourist abusers of women and children in low and middle income countries, or children abandoned by aid workers in countries they were supposed to be helping. The principle is the same as that used in catching the Golden State Killer and in related cases. The specific example was given of the agency Hear Their Cries, which works to identify people who have committed rape and/or abandoned children in the Philippines.
Lastly, there was discussion of forensic phenotyping, where genetic information about facial features and other physical characteristics are used to generate virtual photofits or reveal other clues about a suspect. Parabon was specifically named as a company working in this field.
This programme would offer useful background for anyone interested bioethical implications of genetic information in the contemporary world. I’d like to hear a follow-up show in which they investigate the uses and abuses of genetic evidence as a defence
Biology on the Box 