@article{867166,
      recid = {867166},
      author = {Murphy, Erin E.},
      title = {Inside the cell : the dark side of forensic DNA /},
      pages = {xii, 383 pages :},
      abstract = {"DNA typing -- the analysis of a biological sample for a  person's genetic signature -- has led to the unprecedented  exoneration of hundreds of wrongfully convicted people. And  every day we hear stories about how police used DNA to  capture a dangerous rapist or killer. Reading these  accounts, it is hard not to think of DNA typing as an  unmitigated good. Who can argue with a technology that  helps catch bad guys and correct law enforcement mistakes?  But there is a darker side to this story -- a version less  likely to play out on dramatic television shows. In Inside  the Cell, Erin Murphy shows how DNA typing can be subject  to misuse, mistake, and error, and lead to a police state  run amok. Murphy shows the perils of a society in which  "stop-and-frisk" becomes "stop-and-spit," or in which  police pose undercover to get a DNA sample from your  discarded lunch. Already, police can collect DNA when  making an arrest, sometimes before charging a person with a  crime. The government is building a massive DNA database,  stockpiling samples from as much as a third of the male  population, and the laws regulating what they can and  cannot do with them are weak. Murphy shows how this invites  the riskiest kind of genetic surveillance imaginable. Just  because DNA testing is good science does not mean that it  is foolproof. Faulty forensic science is the number two  factor leading to wrongful conviction, and yet we have done  little to improve the use of science in criminal justice.  Forensic labs are largely unregulated and lacking in  meaningful oversight standards, as evidenced by the  involvement of nearly every major forensic lab in a  DNA-related scandal. We have invested hundreds of millions  of dollars to collect DNA samples from convicted offenders.  But we have spent far less to hire analysts to wade through  huge backlogs, and virtually nothing to ensure that  evidence will ever even collected from the crime scene. We  are at a critical moment in time for forensic DNA testing  programs. We may continue on the road we are on now, with  our blind faith and limitless enthusiasm for handing over  our genetic secrets to the police for them to use at their  unfettered discretion. Or, as Murphy advises here, we can  pause to take stock of our failures and our successes,  appreciate what is truly at stake and what is truly to be  gained, and change course toward a smarter DNA policy that  is in everybody's interest."--},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/867166},
}