Criminal Procedure
Modern Technological Advances and their use in Criminal Investigations Angela Chase, Juan Matos and Terrence Priester University of Phoenix
Modern Technological Advances and their use in Criminal Investigations From the inception of the United States criminal justice system, extreme advancements have been made in the field of law enforcement. Particularly in today’s society, modern technological advances such as DNA profiling, fingerprinting, cameras, and wiretappinghave brought about new methods to aid in crime solving. Just two decades ago citizens in this country may have bought into the term “the perfect crime”, a crime that was so ingenious police would never be able to find a suspect. Many crimes were impossible to solve and sat unsolved for years. In today’s times, however, much has changed and with the advances in science and technology, the criminal justice system is better than ever, at catching, monitoring and convicting criminals. One form of criminal identification procedure that has become increasingly popular is DNA analysis. To identify an individual, scientists focus on 13 DNA loci and from that a DNA profile, or DNA fingerprint, is created. The reason this method is so successful is that the chances of two people have the same DNA profile are extremely rare. With DNA testing there are no mistakes. Identifying potential suspects, exonerating wrongly accused persons, identifying crime and catastrophe victims, and establishing paternity or familial relationships are just a few ways in which this technique is used (U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2009). DNA can be used to accurately identify criminals when biological evidence is left at the scene of a crime. DNA testing has helped solve cold cases that for years were thought impossible to crack. Keeping a data bank of DNA has made it easier to identify suspects in numerous crimes, particularly because more serious crimes often are committed by repeat offenders, a data
Modern Technological Advances and their use in Criminal Investigations From the inception of the United States criminal justice system, extreme advancements have been made in the field of law enforcement. Particularly in today’s society, modern technological advances such as DNA profiling, fingerprinting, cameras, and wiretappinghave brought about new methods to aid in crime solving. Just two decades ago citizens in this country may have bought into the term “the perfect crime”, a crime that was so ingenious police would never be able to find a suspect. Many crimes were impossible to solve and sat unsolved for years. In today’s times, however, much has changed and with the advances in science and technology, the criminal justice system is better than ever, at catching, monitoring and convicting criminals. One form of criminal identification procedure that has become increasingly popular is DNA analysis. To identify an individual, scientists focus on 13 DNA loci and from that a DNA profile, or DNA fingerprint, is created. The reason this method is so successful is that the chances of two people have the same DNA profile are extremely rare. With DNA testing there are no mistakes. Identifying potential suspects, exonerating wrongly accused persons, identifying crime and catastrophe victims, and establishing paternity or familial relationships are just a few ways in which this technique is used (U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2009). DNA can be used to accurately identify criminals when biological evidence is left at the scene of a crime. DNA testing has helped solve cold cases that for years were thought impossible to crack. Keeping a data bank of DNA has made it easier to identify suspects in numerous crimes, particularly because more serious crimes often are committed by repeat offenders, a data
References: Biometric identification systems. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=12 U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research. (2009). Human genome project: dna forensics Retrieved from http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/forensics.shtml U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. National Central Bureau of Interpol. (2009). Integrated automated fingerprint identification system (iafis): what is it?