DNA Database Advantage Or Disadvantage

TASK 1 P3

Ethical Issues associated with the development and subsequent issues of the National DNA database

The main one I would say is the prisoner who has nothing to do with the crime to be cleared as with this database they can check the DNA of different people and keep the people who are guilty or clear there names of a crime they didn’t commit,

They say “would be fairer to include everyone, guilty or innocent” They might have a good point here as the crimes are increasing they can be checked on the DNA database to locate the individual and therefore making it faster in capturing the person who has committed the crime they can also used this as evidence in court and the person who committed the crime can do nothing more than to submit, this also helps the people who have been wrongly convicted of a crime and they can be released as there DNA trace will not appear at the crime scene

As if they don’t do this the many people who are walking the streets and whose DNA would show them guilty of a crime they committed would go free but if the DNA covers the whole population it would make it easier to track the person and prove him guilty

If a crime has taken place and the person has fled the DNA could be traced back to him and used for his capture and his unlawful action by comparing directly with their sample from the crime scene plus this avoids any errors.

So if wasn’t done many sickening crimes would have gone unsolved and many dangerous criminals would have remained at large

Moral Issues associated with the development and subsequent issues of the National DNA database

The database was created in 1995 as a crime fighting tool in 2004 a law was passed in allowing the DNA of innocent people to be retained by the police and now anyone whose arrested and not convicted has their genetic code entered into the database, they are ignoring human rights ruling over DNA database keeping the database growing, its going out of control as it was setup for criminals which were convicted of serious offences but now it contains 5 millions peoples profiles about a million who are innocent, also research shows the database is racially biased (equality and ...

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We need a system where if you are arrested for an offense and your cleared that your samples are cleared of the system but only in particular circumstances such as those who have been charged of serious rather than offensive should have their samples kept for up to 5 years which has happened in Scotland

But Scottish system isn’t even under ruling by labour party and the DNA database keeps on growing despite the decision by retaining DNA of innocent people is illegal

They still propose of keeping the DNA of innocent people for up to 12 years.

TASK M3

As stated before in the previous task the DNA database was created in 1995 made for crime fighting purposes and the crimes which were increasing could be easily resolved by locating the person and prosecuting him for the crime and also taking out the wrongly accused individual.

It was also established in 1995 by the criminal justice and by public order act 1994 that the reclassified buccal scrapes and rooted hairs as non-intimate samples (mouth swab) which allowed the police to take samples from anyone convicted or cautioned

Next year after the establishment of the DNA database March 3 a rule stated allowing prisoners 7,750 of them to be checked by carrying out tests, and these were prisoners who were convicted of serious violent crimes or sexual offenses

2 Years after on the May 5th year 1998 a President of the police super intendants association called for the establishment of a national DNA database which was going to be for the whole population

Same year and in September 16th Robert Taylor the elite of the National Crime Squad Says “a DNA sample should be taken from every baby at birth to solve crime”

Next year 1999 month June 23rd known as the first move of the DNA database where Merseyside Police says “they will extend the categories of offences for which DNA samples will be obtained to include anyone reported, charged or cautioned with a racially motivated offence”

Next month July 30th 1999 Jack Straw who is the home secretary unveils proposals which allow the police to keep thousands of DNA samples given by innocent people to compare with potential matches found at scenes of crime

Few months later September 27th 1999 Criminals will face compulsory DNA tests under new proposals stated by Prime Minister Tony Blair

Next year April 10th year 2000 which is five years after the launch of the DNA database the DNA profiles of more than 750,000 people convicted or were cautioned for an offence and 73,000 profiles from the evidence found at the crime scene are stored on the database also a total of 68,000 suspects have been matched to crimes through the database helping linking between 10,000 crimes and other incidents

Few months later November 14th where the database passes a million profile of suspects or criminals

Next year 2001 January 29 Jack straw states that “DNA taken from suspected criminals will be available to the police forever under the criminal justice and police bill

Next month February 18th the scientist who discovered DNA fingerprinting called Professor Sir Alec Jeffery calls for the entire population to be DNA tested to help combat serious crimes

Next year September 12th 2002 The court of appeal rules that the police can keep the DNA samples and finger prints taken from people who have faced prosecution but were never convicted

Most of the villains know that hydrogen peroxide or any other chemical can destroy DNA molecules the criminal fertility now discovered how to proactively undermine DNA profiling technology to its advantage (PCR amplication) PCR makes many copies of a single DNA which can be found from cigarette butt

Next year 2003 July 15th the number of the genetic samples reaches 2 million

October 29th of the same year the government suffers a defeat in the Lords when peers back a move requiring fingerprints and DNA samples taken from suspects to be destroyed if there is no prosecution

Next year 2004 July 22 upheld by the House of Lords the right of the police to retain DNA samples and fingerprints taken from people who have faced court processing’s but never been convicted

January 12th 2005 Gene Watch UK states that privacy safeguards are needed to combat the intrusive effects of the police DNA database

In march 2005 a £240 million DNA expansion program aimed to gather the DNA profiles of all known active offenders this funding was provided to increase the collection and analysis of DNA material

November 7th 2005 the home office denies that black men are being unfairly targeted by the police despite the figures showing that they were four times more likely to be on the national database

October 15th 2007 the home office minister Meg Miller says it’s time for a debate on the future growth of the national DNA database

July 30th 2008 the government’s citizens enquiry finds that innocent people should have their profiles deleted

March 30th 2009 the number of profiles held on the Database has increased by 40% within two years and has topped 5 million stated by the Home Office

Future developments

The DNA profiling is increasing being used to identify suspects rather than linking known suspects to a crime and as the DNA analysis gets faster it may be possible to run an arrestee sample against the national DNA database in a matter of minutes like finger prints allowing the detection of a crime faster and preventing it

There are concerns about the use of this technology as the DNA is very different to other type of forensic data and since the technology has developed it now allows having the capacity to reveal a lot more personal information e.g. revealing if the person is at risk of ill-health and also who they are related to, giving the police much more information about a person

Source

DNA Telegraph – National DNA Database Timeline

The Daily Telegraph