DNA ANALYSIS

DNA Analysis

DNA Analysis

Introduction

Traditionally, the term instrumentation has been applied to laboratory analysis of physical evidence found at the crime scene. Instrumentation evolved into the fields of forensic science and criminalistics. Instrumentation, forensic science, and criminalistics are terms that are often used interchangeably. However, forensic science involves the application of the physical as well as some social and business sciences to the investigation of crime. Sophisticated laboratory procedures and analyses are currently available, and more are being developed. Psychological profiling, anthropology, forensic accounting, spectrographic analysis, biology, chemistry, DNA analysis, and new ballistics testing technology are used in contemporary criminal investigations. The use of digital imaging as an investigative tool has also increased. Thus, forensic science may be defined as the application of science to the enforcement of law, and it has become extremely important to investigations in the twenty-first century.

Discussion

One of the most significant advances in forensic science in the latter half of the twentieth century was the development of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) profiling technology. Contained within a gene, DNA is a molecule that is present in all forms of life. It is unique to the life form, determines the organism's traits, and assists with the development of a genetic fingerprint specific to the organism from which the molecules are taken. Blood, semen, and body tissues are good sources of human molecular cells containing DNA. Human biological samples collected at crime scenes can be used to develop a DNA profile. Comparison samples taken from victims and suspects can be profiled and analyzed to determine if both samples have a common origin. For example, the DNA profile developed from a semen sample taken from a rape victim can be compared to the DNA profile of blood taken from the rape suspect. (Krimsky, 2002 )

DNA

Since the development of the first conclusive DNA matching techniques in the early 1980s, the public perception of forensic science has undergone a remarkable transformation. The role of trained specialists whose laboratories are as important to solving crime as the police interview room has been popularized with relative accuracy in the media. When DNA was sequenced successfully to permit ever smaller biological evidentiary fragments to be analyzed to determine the identity of the sample source, the technological developments that took DNA science from nuclear analysis to new mitochondrial bases moved at a pace that in scientific terms has been breathtakingly swift. (Brown, 2006)

The power of DNA to exonerate the wrongly charged or convicted is a feature of modern forensic biotechnology that reveals its importance to the pursuit of criminal justice, particularly in cases where otherwise compelling independent eyewitness evidence or circumstantial evidence appears to confirm the guilt of a particular defendant. DNA evidence is also an essential component of paternity testing and other legal procedures such as the tracing of legal heirs to an estate, where proof of identity is at the heart of the case to be determined, as well as identification of victims in the aftermath of large natural disasters like tsunamis and ...