How much justice can technology afford? The impact of DNA technology on equal criminal justice

Simon A Cole

Science and Public Policy, 2007, vol. 34, issue 2, 95-107

Abstract: New technology is changing the administration of criminal justice. Among the most prominent of such changes is the development of forensic DNA technology, which includes a forensic assay with potentially enormous discrimination and sensitivity and the development of large databases based on that assay. This article considers the likely impact of DNA technology on the race, class, and gender inequalities that are acknowledged facets of the American criminal justice system. The article focuses on two major consequences of the development of DNA technology: the increasing, though still modest, reliance on DNA recovered from scenes to investigate crimes; and the rise of large criminal identification databases based on genetic profiles. It is often suggested that DNA is an egalitarian technology that will have a leveling effect on criminal justice administration. Although DNA technology does mitigate inequality in some cases, it may also exacerbate inequality in less obvious ways. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Date: 2007
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