Impact on SocietyForensics has made a huge impact on the society as a whole. From crime scene investigations to DNA fingerprinting, forensics have been used to figure out crime suspects and people involved in various cases. Although many biotechnologist agree on DNA data banking, society feels that forensics and DNA typing are too high in financial costs and will be a potential harm to the interests of individuals.  DNA that are found in crime scenes are analyzed to see if there is a match between the many thousands of other DNA that are stored. People feel that getting their DNA obtained is an intrusion of civil liberty.  Not long ago, each case that involved testifying against a criminal cost about 8,000 to 10,000 dollars. Now with the new technology of finger printing and DNA data banking, costs have actually lowered. It is seen that “in fact, in Wisconsin, the average cost for DNA testing is $390.00 per case”. |
It is said in an article that “studies of the United Kingdom’s criminal database, which retains the DNA samples of all suspects, show that ethnic minorities are over represented in the population of arrestees and are, therefore, overrepresented in the criminal DNA database. This raises the concern of an institutionalized ethnic bias in the criminal justice system”.  Many feel that DNA typing is a threat to liberty and privacy. DNA typing has the potential to uncover a lot of important information that many people find to be private and that they should be kept to themselves.  This is a pro since DNA data banking; blood tests, saliva tests, etc are more accurate and efficient. At the same time, there are so many cases that are actually processed. “However, when the State Crime Laboratory received 2,226 DNA cases in 2006 and was only able to process 1,152 cases, that savings quickly became a cost. They projected that millions of dollars would be needed for hiring and training DNA specialist. So what with DNA appearing to be a cost saving, it could quickly become a cost burden based on the number of backlog cases in a criminal laboratory”. This here shows that the cases that are “backlogged” cost much more in long term costs. |
