The Power of DNA Typing Evidence

A strand of hair, a drop of blood, a trace of saliva on a bottle, semen isolated from a rape victim. These bits of evidence from a crime scene can influence criminal investigations as well as the outcome of a trial. Instead of relying on fingerprints from a crime scene to identify suspects, law enforcement officers are learning to collect evidence that may contain DNA to identify individuals with virtual certainty. Violent crimes and sexual abuse cases that once might have gone unsolved due to insufficient evidence are now being solved based on the collection and analysis of such biological material.