DNA In Criminal Investigation

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DNA IN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION 5Transportation and storage of DNA evidence is also extremely important. Whentransporting DNA evidence the officer should be aware that having the evidence in directsunlight can cause the evidence to become compromised (DNA Evidence, 2012). The officershould ensure that they do not place the evidence in an environment where it can get hot, insteadthey should place it in a cold environment to preserve it (DNA Evidence, 2012). It is importantthat the DNA evidence be stored in the proper way as well. The evidence should be stored ineither a paper bag or an envelope, sealed, and marked (National Institute of Justice, 1999). DNAevidence should never under any circumstances be stored in a plastic bag, because they
Once a person is convicted their DNA is entered into thesystem and from that point on, law enforcement can run DNA samples from a crime scenethrough the database to search for a link from the suspect to another crime or crime scene(National Institute of Justice, 1999). This database allows officers identify a specific suspectwhere they did not have one previously. Without this technology creating DNA links betweenseparate crime scenes would be much more difficult.DNA is used very often to help solve criminal cases and to convict the criminals thatcommitted the crimes. The first ever use of DNA typing was not used for a criminalinvestigation. The first ever use of DNA typing was in 1984, with the use being to determine afamily link between a group of people (M’Charek, 2008). After this people started to wonder ifthis technology could be used in investigation to link evidence at a crime scene to a suspect(M’Charek, 2008). It was not long after this that DNA typing was used in a criminal case. Theearliest use of DNA typing in a criminal case was the Enderby Cases, in the year 1987, inEngland, where a 15-year-old girl was raped and murdered near the village of Enderby. Threeyears after that occurred, another 15-year-old fell
She was one of eleven women who was killedthis way by a serial killer by the name of Albert DeSalvo otherwise known as the Bostonstrangler. DeSalvo was never convicted of any of the Boston strangler cases but was sentenced tolife in prison on other rape charges. In 1973, he was stabbed by other inmates and for years’experts were unsure if he actually did kill the women, or if the real killer got away. In 2013 somenew evidence came to light linking him to the murders. Investigators got a sample from anephew of DeSalvo’s and ran it against DNA found from seminal fluid found on a blanket onSullivan’s body and got a match. With this information, the investigators were able to getDeSalvo’s body exhumed, and tested DNA they got from his teeth and femur. With theinformation gained from these tests they were after 50 years able to know with certainty that itwas in fact DeSalvo who murdered those women (Bulman, 2014).What is DNA and how is it used in criminal investigation? DNA is something that isfound in every single person on the planet. It is something that is plays a very large part incriminal investigation, and the conviction of criminals. DNA can play a pivotal role in manycases and can last for many years after the original crime has been committed, under the rightcircumstances, but also can ruin a chance for conviction if the DNA is not handled right, andbecomes contaminated. DNA can even be used