Silent Witness, Articulate Collective: Dna Evidence and the Inference of Visible Traits

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Bracketing off population does not advance ethical reflection on EVCs: A reply to Kayser and Schneider

“…As our examples show, EVCs have moved the problem of defining population centre stage [8]; what is at stake are not only individual rights but civil rights of entire groups of people. Avoiding unintended consequences of the use of EVCs for forensic and policing purposes will not be achieved by discussing scientific and operational issues alone.…”

“…While this is certainly a positive effect of the use of EVCs in criminal investigation, the flip side of the coin is that the second profile foster exactly the opposite, namely forms of racial profiling and the incrimination of a whole population. Such cases have occurred in recent history and lead to violations of basic rights of large groups of people (for descriptions see [8][9][10][11][12]). Infringements of the rights of groups of individuals typically occur when volunteers -approached according to criteria that correspond with certain presumed ethnicities -are requested to provide samples 'voluntarily'.…”

“…If this is an assumption that is made in the public realm, it increases the risk of stigmatization of individuals and groups, reinforces racial categories [3,[8][9][10][11][12]15], and clusters an entire population group into a 'suspect population' [16]. If such assumptions enter investigative considerations as well, then members of such 'suspect populations' will have to be actively excluded as possible perpetrators e.g.…”

“…Avoiding unintended consequences of the use of EVCs for forensic and policing purposes will not be achieved by discussing scientific and operational issues alone. Given the risk and potential social consequences, forensic geneticists, police examiners as well as experts on the ethical, legal, and social aspects of EVCs should engage in ongoing debate as to safeguard proper use of this technology [3,8].…”

Turning Aggression into an Object of Intervention: Tinkering in a Crime Control Pilot Study

“…It is argued that objects are always being constituted in specific arrangements of humans and things (Haraway, 1991;M'charek, 2008;Gad and Lauritsen, 2009). Aggression, for instance, is constituted by pulling together collectives of humans and nonhumans at a certain place and time, including tools, bodies of knowledge, and regulatory frameworks.…”