DNA In The Criminal Justice Field Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

DNA In The Criminal Justice Field - Essay Example The benefits of the stated, as well as the challenges that may confront its implementation, shall be explored herein. Violent crime is increasing and become more widespread. This statement is supported by statistics which indicate that there are an average 25 murders in the United States every single day, in addition to over 1,000 acts of violence, including rape ("World Murder Statistics"). Most of the crimes are solved and the criminals get their legal punishment but, in numerous other cases, the wrong person is imprisoned or the crime remains unsolved. Over and above, catching just one criminal and solving just one case involves hours of police work and costly investigations. In other words, the current method of solving crimes is costly and its results are not guaranteed. It is due to this that the US government should try to improve and enhance its crime fighting ability. As the United Kingdom as already in the process of doing, according to the Lancet science writer, Adrian Linacre, the United States should establish a criminal DNA database. This database which would, at first include DNA sam ples from all people guilty of any type of crime or suspected in a crime, would act as a reference for solving crime in an efficient and certain manner. With such a database, DNA collected from a crime scene can be matched up against DNA already in the databank and DNA collected from the new crime suspects (Linacre). On the one hand, this will help solve crimes much faster and, on the other hand, will protect the innocent from wrongly being accused and imprisoned. The United States, however, does not have such a databank at the present moment. According to the USA Today article, "DNA Database Could Help Solve Crimes," this undermines the ability of US police forces to solve crimes. As written in the article, "The United States is one of only a small number of countries that limit the crime fighting potential of their DNA databases by failing to include suspects and/or arrestees" ("DNA Database"). The reason is that the United States fears that such a database would be an invasion of privacy on the one hand, and that the widespread use of DNA in crime solving would be abused, on the other. While establishing a DNA databank and exploiting DNA science in fighting crime could be interpreted as a violation of privacy, can be abused, and may cost millions of dollars in taxpayers' money, the fact is that a DNA databank and the widespread use of DNA evidence in police work are invaluable in fighting crime; separating the guilty from the innocent, ensuring that criminals are caught and protecting society. Although the use of DNA as a crime fighting and solving method appears quite complicated, it actually is not and can be defined as a more accurate and advanced type of fingerprinting. As defined by Adrian Linacre, a human biologist, DNA refers to the material inside each and every human cell nucleus and which contains an individual's genetic print. That genetic print, or map, is unique to the individual, with the implication being that it functions as a definitive identifier. The importance of DNA, as a