National DNA database
Encyclopedia
A national DNA database is a government database
Government database
Government databases collect personal information for various reasons .-Canada:...

 of DNA profiles which can be used by law enforcement agencies
Law enforcement agency
In North American English, a law enforcement agency is a government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws.Outside North America, such organizations are called police services. In North America, some of these services are called police while others have other names In North American...

 to identify suspects of crimes.

The first government database (NDNAD
UK National DNA Database
The United Kingdom National DNA Database is a national DNA Database that was set up in 1995. As of the end of 2005, it carried the profiles of around 3.1 million people...

) was set up by the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in April 1995. The second one was set up in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. France set up the FNAEG
FNAEG
The Fichier National Automatisé des Empreintes Génétiques is the French national DNA database, used by both the national police force and local gendarmerie.-Origins and evolution :...

 in 1998. In the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

 has organized the CODIS
Combined DNA Index System
The Combined DNA Index System is a DNA database funded by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation . It is a computer system that stores DNA profiles created by federal, state, and local crime laboratories in the United States, with the ability to search the database to assist in the...

 database. Originally intended for sex offender
Sex offender
A sex offender is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and by legal jurisdiction. Most jurisdictions compile their laws into sections such as traffic, assault, sexual, etc. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a...

s, they have since been extended to include almost any criminal offender.

In England and Wales, anyone arrested on suspicion of a recordable offence
Recordable offence
A recordable offence is any offence under United Kingdom law where the police must keep records of convictions and offenders on the Police National Computer.A 'crime recordable offence' should not be confused with a 'crime reportable offence'....

 must submit a DNA sample, the profile of which is then stored on the DNA database as a permanent record. In Scotland, the law requires the DNA profiles of most people who are acquitted be removed from the database. In Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, only the DNA profiles of criminals who have spent more than two years in prison are stored. In Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, court orders are required, and are only available, respectively, for serious offenders and for those convicted of certain offences and who are likely to reoffend. Forty-nine states in the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, all apart from Idaho, store DNA profiles of violent offenders, and a few also store profiles of suspects. In 2005 the incoming Portuguese government proposed to introduce a DNA database of the entire population of Portugal. However, after informed debate including opinion from the Portuguese Ethics Council the database introduced was of just the criminal population.

Scope of databases

The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 maintains the largest DNA database
DNA database
A DNA database or DNA databank is a database of DNA data. A DNA database can be used in the analysis of genetic diseases, genetic fingerprinting for criminology, or genetic genealogy. DNA databases may be public or private. These databases do not normally hold DNA except for a short time...

 in the world, with the Combined DNA Index System
Combined DNA Index System
The Combined DNA Index System is a DNA database funded by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation . It is a computer system that stores DNA profiles created by federal, state, and local crime laboratories in the United States, with the ability to search the database to assist in the...

 (CODIS) holding over 9 million records as of 2011. The United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 maintains the National DNA Database (NDNAD), which is of similar size. The size of this database, and its rate of growth, is giving concern to civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...

 and political groups in the UK, where police have wide-ranging powers to take samples and retain them even in the event of acquittal.

When a match is made from a national DNA database to link a crime scene to an offender who has provided a DNA sample to a database that link is often referred to as a cold hit. A cold hit is of value in referring the police agency to a specific suspect but is of less evidential value than a DNA match made from outside the DNA database.

As of March 2011, 361,176 forensic profiles and 9,404,747 offender profiles have been accumulated, making it the largest DNA database
DNA database
A DNA database or DNA databank is a database of DNA data. A DNA database can be used in the analysis of genetic diseases, genetic fingerprinting for criminology, or genetic genealogy. DNA databases may be public or private. These databases do not normally hold DNA except for a short time...

 in the world. As of the same date, CODIS has produced over 138,700 matches to requests, assisting in more than 133,400 investigations. The United Kingdom National DNA Database consisted of an estimated number 5,512,776 profiles of individuals as of March 2011.

The growing public approval of DNA databases has seen the creation and expansion of many states' own DNA databases. California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 currently maintains the third largest DNA database in the world (naturally, as CODIS contains all states' database information). Political measures such as California Proposition 69 (2004), which increased the scope of the DNA database, have already met with a significant increase in numbers of investigations aided.

In order to decrease the number of irrelevant matches at NDIS, the Convicted Offender Index requires all 13 CODIS STR
Short tandem repeat
A short tandem repeat in DNA occurs when a pattern of two or more nucleotides are repeated and the repeated sequences are directly adjacent to each other. The pattern can range in length from 2 to 5 base pairs and is typically in the non-coding intron region...

s to be present for a profile upload. Forensic profiles only require 10 of the STRs to be present for an upload.

The application of DNA databases have been expanded into two controversial areas: arrestees and familial searching. An arrestee is a person arrested for a crime and who has not yet been convicted for that offense. Currently, 21 states have passed legislation that allows law enforcement to take DNA from an arrestee and enter it into the state's CODIS DNA database to see if that person has a criminal record or can be linked to any unsolved crimes. In familial searching, the DNA database is used to look for partial matches that would be expected between close family members. This technology can be used to link crimes to the family members of suspects and thereby help identify a suspect when the perpetrator has no DNA sample in the database.

DNA databases and medicine

Many countries collect newborn blood samples to screen for diseases
Newborn screening
Newborn screening is the process by which infants are screened shortly after birth for a list of disorders that are treatable, but difficult or impossible to detect clinically. Screening programs are often run by state or national governing bodies with the goal of screening all infants born in the...

 mainly with a genetic basis. Mainly these are destroyed soon after testing. In some countries the dried blood
Dried blood spot testing
Dried blood spot testing is a method of screening for HIV infection and other conditions using DNA amplification.-History:The concept that capillary blood, obtained from pricking the heel or finger and blotted onto filter paper, could be used to screen for metabolic diseases in large populations...

 (and the DNA) is retained for later tesing.

In Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 the Danish Newborn Screening Biobank at Statens Serum Institut keeps a blood sample from people born after 1981. The purpose is to test for Phenylketonuria
Phenylketonuria
Phenylketonuria is an autosomal recessive metabolic genetic disorder characterized by a mutation in the gene for the hepatic enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase , rendering it nonfunctional. This enzyme is necessary to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine to the amino acid tyrosine...

 and other diseases. But it is also used for DNA tests to identify deceased and suspected criminals. Parents can request that the blood sample of their newborn is destroyed after the result of test is known.

DNA collection and human rights

In a judgement in December 2008, the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...

 ruled that two British men should not have had their DNA and fingerprints retained by police saying that retention "could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society".

The DNA fingerprinting pioneer Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys condemned UK government plans to keep the genetic details of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in England and Wales for up to 12 years. Jeffreys said he was "disappointed" with the proposals, which came after a European court ruled that the current policy breaches people's right to privacy. Jefferys said "It seems to be as about as minimal a response to the European court of human rights judgment as one could conceive. There is a presumption not of innocence but of future guilt here … which I find very disturbing indeed".

See also

  • Combined DNA Index System
    Combined DNA Index System
    The Combined DNA Index System is a DNA database funded by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation . It is a computer system that stores DNA profiles created by federal, state, and local crime laboratories in the United States, with the ability to search the database to assist in the...

     (CODIS)
  • DNA profiling
  • Forensic Science Service
    Forensic Science Service
    The Forensic Science Service is a government-owned company in the United Kingdom which provides forensic science services to the police forces and government agencies of England and Wales, as well as other countries.-History:...

  • Government databases
  • LGC Forensics
  • UK National DNA Database
    UK National DNA Database
    The United Kingdom National DNA Database is a national DNA Database that was set up in 1995. As of the end of 2005, it carried the profiles of around 3.1 million people...

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