Silent witness : forensic DNA analysis in criminal investigations and humanitarian disasters / edited by Henry Erlich, Eric Stover and Thomas J. White.

New York : Oxford University Press, 2020.

1st edition

90149

DNA -- Analysis.

Forensic genetics.

DNA fingerprinting.

Introduction: Genetics for justice

Part I: DNA technology and individual identification

1. In the beginning: forensic applications of DNA technologies

2. Exonerating the wrongfully convicted

3. Analysis of forensic mixtures

4. Forensic DNA data banks and data mining: balancing between privacy interests and public safety

5. Recent developments in forensic DNA technology

6. Microbial forensics: from epidemiology to crime investigations

Part II: Human rights and humanitarian disasters

7. The living disappeared: forensic DNA typing and the search for Argentina's stolen children

8. Disappeared, not lost: finding El Salvador's missing children

9. Large scale identification of the missing: experiences and perspectives of the international commission on missing persons

10. Tracing windblown seeds: genetic information as a biometric for tracking migrants

11. Preventing a third death: identification of missing migrants at the US-Mexico border

12. Taking stock: DNA testing and its complex truths

Part III: Challenges and debates

13. Admissibility of DNA evidence in court

14. Immediacy and authority: identification efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the World Trade Center compared

15. Forensic genetics, ethics, privacy, and public policy

Conclusion: the future of forensic DNA analysis.

Since its introduction in the late 1980s, DNA analysis has revolutionized the forensic sciences: it has helped to convict the guilty, exonerate the wrongfully convicted, identify victims of mass atrocities, and reunite families whose members have been separated by war and repressive regimes. Yet, many of the scientific, legal, societal, and ethical concepts that underpin forensic DNA analysis remain poorly understood, and their application often controversial. Told by over twenty experts in genetics, law, and social science, Silent Witness relates the history and development of modern DNA forensics and its application in both the courtroom and humanitarian settings. Across three thematic sections, Silent Witness tracks the scientific advances in DNA analysis and how these developments have affected criminal and social justice, whether through the arrests of new suspects, as in the case of the Golden State Killer, or through the ability to identify victims of war, terrorism, and human rights abuses, as in the cases of the disappeared in Argentina and the former Yugoslavia and those who perished during the 9/11 attacks. By providing a critical inquiry into modern forensic DNA science, Silent Witness underscores the need to balance the benefits of using forensic genetics to solve crime with the democratic right to safeguard against privacy invasion and unwarranted government scrutiny, and raises the question of what it means to be an autonomous individual in a world where the most personal elements of one's identity are now publicly accessible. - Publisher's website.

Foreword by Scott Turow.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9780190909451

9780190909444

xvi, 394 p. ; 24 cm