Genetics and Forensics: Making the National DNA Database

This paper is based on a current study of the growing police use of the epistemic
authority of molecular biology for the identification of criminal suspects in support
of crime investigation. It discusses the development of DNA profiling and the establishment
and development of the UK National DNA Database (NDNAD) as an instance
of the ‘scientification of police work’ (Ericson and Shearing 1986) in which the police
uses of science and technology have a recursive effect on their future development.
The NDNAD, owned by the Association of Chief Police Officers of England and Wales,
is the first of its kind in the world and currently contains the genetic profiles of more
than 2 million people. The paper provides a framework for the examination of this
socio-technical innovation, begins to tease out the dense and compact history of
the database and accounts for the way in which changes and developments across
disparate scientific, governmental and policing contexts, have all contributed to the
range of uses to which it is put.

Keywords: DNA, databases, forensic sciences.