Commanders Post at The Warpath - View Single Post

RedskinRat · 01-11-2013, 01:37 PM

DNA and Crime

First, as DNA databases grow, “easy to catch” offenders are deterred or incarcerated quickly, so new crimes are committed by more elusive offenders, resulting in new crimes that are more difficult to solve. Second, as police officers become more familiar with DNA and other forensic evidence, they grow more aware of the limited accuracy of tools they once relied upon—like eyewitness testimony—and are increasingly selective in whom they arrest, resulting in fewer but more accurate arrests.

And:

The cost of collecting and analyzing each DNA sample is less than $40, according to a US Department of Justice estimate, and less than $20 in several states. The marginal cost of analyzing new DNA samples continues to fall as technology improves, and DNA databases exhibit tremendous returns to scale. There are large startup costs for crime lab equipment and computer databases, but the cost of expanding the program is relatively small.

01-11-2013, 01:37 PM	#3
RedskinRat Franchise Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: I'm in LA, trick! Posts: 8,700	Re: All things Science related. λν = c DNA and Crime First, as DNA databases grow, “easy to catch” offenders are deterred or incarcerated quickly, so new crimes are committed by more elusive offenders, resulting in new crimes that are more difficult to solve. Second, as police officers become more familiar with DNA and other forensic evidence, they grow more aware of the limited accuracy of tools they once relied upon—like eyewitness testimony—and are increasingly selective in whom they arrest, resulting in fewer but more accurate arrests. And: The cost of collecting and analyzing each DNA sample is less than $40, according to a US Department of Justice estimate, and less than $20 in several states. The marginal cost of analyzing new DNA samples continues to fall as technology improves, and DNA databases exhibit tremendous returns to scale. There are large startup costs for crime lab equipment and computer databases, but the cost of expanding the program is relatively small.