APA Style Sheet Running head: ANALYSIS AND APPLICATION: FINAL ESSAY EXAM

DNA Retention Kathy Wiersma Kaplan University

CJ505 Critical Issues in Criminal Justice James Adcock January 15, 2011

APA Style Sheet DNA Retention DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid as it is called is your hereditary material in humans. It is

said that every cell has the same DNA. It is in the nuclear DNA that most of the DNA is located also you can find DNA in mitochondria. The information in DNA is made up of codes that are made from four chemical bases adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). It is all so interesting to know that humane DNA consists of about 3 million bases and 99% of those bases are the same in all people. DNA can replicate itself and this is a unique quality when the cell divides. This leads us to understand what DNA is and how it important it is the human life so you get the understanding about why people want to safe guard the taking of this precious part of us. DNA collection can be as controversial as obtaining a warrant to search someones home. It comes down to whom should have the right to your DNA or not have the right to your DNA. What is it about the DNA that makes it so controversial well for starters it is the camera into a crime it makes or breaks a case. This little bit of you also can free you from false accusations or false imprisonment. With this said it also can be an insight into your genetic code an access to your family medical history. This is the biggest fear is that the government will miss use the information they get and hand it over to another 3rd party to do research on your DNA sample that was handed over after they got the human identification. Pro DNA people say it is the same as fingerprinting and should be treated as such. When you are detained by police they take your fingerprints and it is put in national data base where they find out your identity and if there is any outstanding warrants for your arrest. They want it to be the same for DNA collection. The law was passed in 2005 and took effect in 2009 that any adult arrested for a federal crime provide a DNA sample. In some states it is also mandated for various qualifying offense to provide DNA

APA Style Sheet samples. After the sample is collected, technicians from a lab translate the sample into a DNA profile (numerical sequence). This sequence is what is registered in the national data base. The Pro groups have laws in place to help prevent abuse of the collection process and the use of the sample. It is a $250,000 fine and/or a year in prison for wrong doing involving use or discloser of DNA data collected from an offender. Some states allow other uses like finding missing persons, identifying people after a mass disaster or natural disaster, and also for statistical

research. The controversy is also in the shed DNA collection which is open to anyone to collect and it does not violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because it is disposed of and is not in your home nor on your persons, papers and effects. So with this shed DNA it is not in a violation due to the fact that it is in the garbage and at the curb which makes it an open take from any agency that wants it. It is said that when you throw something out you have no legal rights to it and this is what has helped the pro-people to take advantage of this free for all. The cons to this is that your sample can get into the wrong hands and used for the wrong reasons if you look at social security numbers and how it is not used for the original tended for. I was to track contributions of working Americans in order to figure out retirement benefits but it has become a national identification card instead. This is the ideal example of miss use in something that the government started and lost control of. Taking a side in this issue is tough because of the benefits it can pose put also for the fact that in the hands of humans whom tend to make mistakes, take advantage of, and misrepresents others it could be used to shadow family members and pin them to crimes of the past or future due to the DNA profile that family members share. I find this rather disturbing for many reasons like first that peoples flaws for some apparent reason tend to harm others or take advantage of them. Second, no matter what restrictions we put into place there seems to be wiggle room for errors or mistakes to happen.

APA Style Sheet

Third, laws have been broken for centuries and the proof that a consequence alone does not stop those that want to financially gain from breaking the law. Even if you are not a criminal and have no worries about incriminating yourself you should question the thoughts or actions about taking your liberties for granted. It seems to me that the argument about protecting our securities is the sacrifice of some of our liberties which like our founding fathers have stated Those that would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither (Schilling, 2009). This is such a true statement because if you think about it over the last few decades we have in the United States given up some of our liberties over time for the sake of security. When the Twin Towers came down I knew that life would change for every American out there and we would be giving up some of our liberties for the sack of safety and this has truly taken place because we have given up the right to carry certain things on a plane as well as all the extra scanning machines we go through for safety and security. The ability for listening into our phone conversations as well as tapping into our computers to read our emails is just some of the new laws that have come our way do to security issues raised from 9/11. Now we need to get more control of the issues of criminals that are federal offenders so, in doing so we need their DNA so we can run it against CODIS which runs nationally and would be able to see if that DNA matches any other outstanding warrants for crimes committed. Great idea in theory but then we have other politicians wanting the same thing done for other offenses on the state level and eventually it will be decided that everyone should give up their DNA along with their finger prints at birth. If we do not put some form of safety in place it will get this way. Some scenarios out there of how they could get DNA are: Lets say you live in a small town in Midwest town of Clarks Grove and there happens to be a murder that happened. The local sheriffs office sends out deputies to homes in the area to collect DNA from everyone and they are told it is to eliminate them as suspects. This is known as a dragnet to find

APA Style Sheet

a perpetrator of crime. You are also told you may refuse but it will make the police treat you as a suspect. Fact is that the police and sheriffs departments can ask for volunteering a sample but they need to be careful on how they ask for that sample. It is illegal to threaten someone into giving their DNA and you have a right to contact a lawyer about the situation because the police will most likely keep the sample. You also can not get a warrant based on refusal of voluntary DNA. The second scenario is lets say you are arrested and detained at your local jail but you are not charged or convicted for any crime. Can the police obtain a profile of your DNA? Can they upload it to CODIS (Combined DNA Index System)? Are you obligated to give blood or saliva samples to them? The answers would be yes they can depending on the state you are in. The Federal Government can at any time take your DNA and local police sometimes need a warrant to collect your DNA but with the laws changing faster then we can keep up that will change soon. The third scenario is a detective comes to your house and tells you that the DNA profile of your 2nd cousin was close but not identical match to the biological evidence collected at the scene and starts to ask you questions about your family and also wants you to give a sample what do you do? Well I would tell them that I want to speak to a lawyer and refuse the sample unless they have a warrant. Also the other thing that has changed and loosened up is the familial or low stringency DNA searching. The government is also expanding the genetic surveillance beyond those individuals whose DNA that is in the data base. The fourth scenario is you are convicted of a non-violent crime and you are placed on probation yet the officer wants to take your blood sample so they can file a profile of your DNA. They can if its connected to a boiler plate condition connected to your probation. If it is even just a misdemeanor they can collect your DNA it is not just for violent felonies any more. The Fifth scenario is that you have been sentenced to serve two years in jail for not paying your child support so you serve your time

APA Style Sheet

and youre being released and the guard tells you that you need to collect your DNA. Well most laws are not retrospective and it could be that you do not have to allow this because you are through serving your time and the law changed after you were convicted of the crime. Scenario six, you refuse the familial search DNA request so the police go through your garbage that is sitting on the curb. Well honey its not illegal for them to do this as of now. Seven, your DNA profile has been uploaded to CODIS from your previous arrest and now this agency is handing your profile over to another government agency that is studying behavioral genetics they also get to study the original sample. This really does cross the line because without proper informed consent is improper. The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protects the privacy of genetic information collection for law enforcement purpose from being used for unrelated research purpose. Finally the last scenario is that you have been arrested and booked for being involved in a political demonstration your DNA was taken and you are let go never being convicted of a crime. Can you get t removed? You must now get a copy of the courts decision of dismissal, acquittal, or no charges had been filed. As you can see with these scenarios I have written about this can and most likely have and most people do not know their rights and are intimidated by the police so they just give up those rights do to fear and no one should be intimidated into giving up their DNA. It comes down to people should be in charge of whether they give up their DNA or not and it should not be the governments decision to take it.

REFERENCES

APA Style Sheet Genetic Home References, Your guide to understanding genetic conditions, retrieved on 1/15/2011, http://ghr.nim.nih.gov/handbook/basics/dna

Krimsky, S.,Simoncelli, T., Shorett, P., Annas, G., Balaban, E., billings, P., Byavan, S. Rapp, R., and Vollen, L.

(2008), Forensic DNA collection: A Citizens Guide to your Rights Scenarios and Responses, Council for Responsible Genetics, Retrieved on 1/11/10 Nakashima, E. and Spencer, H.(2008), U.S. to Expand collection of Crime Suspects DNA, Washington post Staff Writers, Retrieved on 1/12/2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/04/16/AR2008041602729.ht..

National Institute of Justice, Debating DNA collection, The Research, Development, and Evaluation Agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, Retrieved on 1/12/20, http://www.ojp.usdpj.gov/nij/journals/264/debating-DNA.htm Pray, L. (2008), Legislative Landmarks of Forensics: California v. greenwood and Shed DNA, Natural Education, Retrieved on 1/12/2011, http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/legislative-landmarksof-forensics-california-v-...

APA Style Sheet Schilling, C. (2009), Bill forces citizens to submit DNA, World Net Daily, Retrieved on 1/12/2011, http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=88087