The Continued Evolution of Forensic DNA Databases

After nearly 30 years, with 54 countries and more than 70 million samples included in DNA databases world-wide, we have been successful in saving taxpayer dollars by solving crimes quickly and preventing new crimes. In the US alone, there are over 14 million profiles in the CODIS database and to date there have been more than 320,000 hits¹. The United Kingdom, with 5.7 million profiles and 40,000 crime scenes analyzed annually, has an impressive hit rate of 63%. As countries continue to expand the number and types of samples contained within their databases, crime rates decrease. Based on a study from the University of Virginia, a 10% increase in database size resulted in 5.22% fewer murders and 6.66% less rapes². Tim Schellberg, President of Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs, discusses how the global public safety community continues to advance databases to their true potential, as was used during the 2015 investigation into the Washington DC mansion murder investigation where DNA from a pizza crust resulted in a DNA match and led to the arrest of a suspect in a week³.

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References:
1. “CODIS – NDIS (National DNA Index System) Statistics.” FBI. U.S. Government, U.S. Department of Justice, May 2016. Web. 15 Aug. 2016
2. Douleac, Jennifer L. “The Effects of DNA Databases on Crime.” (2012): DNAsaves.org, 2 Dec. 2012. Web. 15 Aug. 2016.
3. “Ex-con Indicted on 20 Charges for D.C. Mansion Murders.” NY Daily News. The Associated Press, 17 Feb. 2016. Web. 15 Aug. 2016.