Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technologies are extremely powerful. The methods give law enforcement agencies great ability to both protect the innocent and convict the guilty. Indeed, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has stated that it is very enthusiastic about DNA profiling. The technique certainly has major implications for the murder trial of former football star, O.J. Simpson.
DNA technologies have completely modified the practice of forensic biology. Before their introduction, scientists once attempted to either associate or exclude forensic specimens and criminal suspects using the ABO blood group system. Unfortunately though, these genetic markers have various inherent faults. For instance, sample size can be a problem; it was often insufficient. In addition, blood group evidence can easily become contaminated. Many times, such difficulties rendered the ABO system analyses virtually useless (Sajantila & Budowle 637-642).
In contrast, DNA profiling has dramatically increased the quality of evidence available to law enforcement agencies. DNA methods provide a far greater discriminative capability than conventional blood grouping or, for that matter, even fingerprint examination (Davies 95). An individual's genome is unique (Young et al. 882). With DNA methods, minute amounts of virtually any biologic specimen can therefore be used for identification purposes. DNA profiling is essentially a vastly improved analogue and extension of serologic and fingerprinting examinations. As the techniques are increasingly being integrated into legal casework, investigators are becoming more and more familiar with them. Furthermore, they are beginning to rely less on other analytic options. For example, in Britain, police forensic science laboratories have created a "DNA Index." This DNA profile inventory consists of an unsolved case catalogue: DNA profiles from unsolved crimes have been collected from personal sa...