The Unrealized Potential of DNA Testing

DNA testing has become an established part of criminal justice procedure, and the admissibility of the test results in court has become routine. The Unrealized Potential of DNA Testing discusses how DNA testing has opened up new sources of forensic evidence, but its full potential to identify perpetrators and exonerate people falsely convicted has yet to be realized. For this to be done requires further advances in testing technology and in systems to collect and process the evidence, which includes expanding forensic DNA testing to new types of useful biological evidence; recovering and analyzing new types of DNA evidence; increasing law enforcement resources by supplying additional funds to clear up lab backlogs; and finding less time-consuming and costly testing methods.