Forensic DNA databases in Western Balkan region: retrospectives, perspectives, and initiatives

Abstract

The European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI) recommended the establishment of forensic DNA databases and specific implementation and management legislations for all EU/ENFSI members. Therefore, forensic institutions from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia launched a wide set of activities to support these recommendations. To assess the current state, a regional expert team completed detailed screening and investigation of the existing forensic DNA data repositories and associated legislation in these countries. The scope also included relevant concurrent projects and a wide spectrum of different activities in relation to forensics DNA use. The state of forensic DNA analysis was also determined in the neighboring Slovenia and Croatia, which already have functional national DNA databases. There is a need for a ‘regional supplement’ to the current documentation and standards pertaining to forensic application of DNA databases, which should include regional-specific preliminary aims and recommendations.

Future of biobanks – bigger, longer, and more dimensional

“…An additional focus of the 10 001 Dalmatians project will be complementation of the existing population genetics data (25-28) in order to create a systematic and comprehensive overview of the genetic structure of the modern Croatians.…”

Forensic Genetics and Genotyping

“…Expanded forensic DNA database will probably lead to the violation of a number of individual and civil rights (62). To defend individual and civil rights is to forbid the inclusion of genetic susceptibilities information in crime databases (2).…”

“…The European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI) aims to undertake the standardization of forensic practices in support of policing across the whole of the EU (2). Recently, EU legislation has made all 28 members of the EU to participate in a network of national DNA databases (62).…”

“…The use of DNA typing in criminal procedures in Serbia is regulated by the Criminal Procedure Act. This Act enables the district lawyer to order police to collect the buccal swab samples from the suspect, with or without his or her consent and requires the forensic pathologist to collect the DNA samples from unidentified bodies, and to collect and preserve samples of any biological traces obtained during autopsy (62).…”

Eighth ISABS Conference on Forensic, Anthropologic and Medical Genetics and Mayo Clinic Lectures on Translational Medicine, Split, Croatia, June 24-28, 2013

“…For example, one such initiative pertains to the concordance of the pertinent Balkan databases (9). Another initiative resulted in affiliating the Slavic Speaking Working Group for Forensic Genetics (SSWFG) with ISABS ( http://www.isabs.hr/index.php/sswgfg-isabs/history-of-sswgfg-isabs ).…”