DNA Databases for Criminal Justice System: A Pathway towards Utopian or Dystopian Future?

Abstract

DNA evidence has increasingly become a widespread instrument in solving crime as well as crime prevention. As such, creation of DNA databases or expanding the existing ones have been on the rise in the world. On the one side, storing DNA profiles serves as a pivotal tool in crime solving, but on the other, privacy based on genome concerns occur. DNA databases appears as an example of biotechnology today and in the future that are argued in a spectrum ranging from utopia to dystopia. This methodical approach, of course, is nothing new or novel for a DNA database-related study. This study, however, aims to analyse the matter from the standpoint of criminal law and to discuss whether the modus operandi of criminal procedure on the use of DNA databases paves the way towards utopian or dystopian vision for future. As such, after introducing theme and indicating scope of the study (I), it provides an overview regarding the involvement of DNA as evidence and respectively database in criminal justice system in the world (II). Whether databases established for criminal justice system serve for dystopian.