In 2016, one The rape survivor voluntarily gave her DNA to San Francisco law enforcement officers so her attacker could be brought to justice. Five years later, the sample she provided led police to connect her to an unrelated burglary, according to San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin. Woman face a felony offencebut Boudin drop casesays using her DNA violates her Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure.
The case could prevent sexual assault survivors from continuing if they think their DNA could be used to force them to commit crimes in the future. It also raises legal and ethical questions about the broader use of genetic evidence by law enforcement. “We should encourage survivors to come forward — not collect evidence to use against them in the future. This practice treats victims as evidence, not people,” Boudin said in one Declaration of February 14.
More than 300,000 people have been raped or sexually assaulted in 2020, according to the Department of Justice Crime Victimization Report 2020. However, less than 23% of those assaults were reported to the police, down nearly 34% from 2019. Many survivors are also reluctant to undergo a forensic examination, also known as a forensic examination. instruments of rape, out of fear or shame. During the examination, the nurse collects biological evidence that may contain the attacker’s DNA, such as blood, hair, saliva, and skin cells. Survivors may also be asked to provide a sample of their own DNA as a reference to determine if the genetic material found at a crime scene is theirs or someone else’s.
“Victims of sexual assault face a very invasive test,” said Camille Cooper, vice president for public policy at RAINN, Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. This for one purpose and that is to identify their attacker. Prevent sexual assault and help survivors. “Any use of their DNA for any other purpose is completely inappropriate and unethical.”
However, there is currently no uniform practice for what a crime lab does with reference DNA samples after testing. Federal law prohibits police from uploading victims’ DNA profiles to a national database known as the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, maintained by the FBI. CODIS is used to link violent crimes such as murder and sexual assault to known offenders and has strict rules about the type of records that can be submitted. It contains DNA collected from crime scenes, from people arrested or convicted of felonies, and to a lesser extent, from unidentified remains. People who are released or found not guilty can request that their information be removed from CODIS.
But some local police departments operate their own DNA databases out of the reach of CODIS. Most states do not have laws limiting the types of DNA samples that can be stored in them. “Police departments around the country have evolved over time,” said Andrea Roth, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in forensic science and has studied these databases. this separate database that is barely controlled.
