Review: Forensic Identification and Criminal Justice: Forensic Science, Justice and Risk
| Date | 01 January 2008 |
| Author | Mike Redmayne |
| Published date | 01 January 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1350/ijep.2008.12.1.289 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEW
Carole McCartney
FORENSIC
IDENTIFICATION
AND
CRIMINAL
JUSTICE:
FORENSIC
SCIENCE, JUSTICE AND RISK
Willan Publishing (Uffculme, 2006), xxii + 247 pp, hb £35
The Home Office recently issued a Consultation Paper on the review of various
rules associated with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. Among the ideas
floated is a further extension of DNA sampling powers, allowing the police to
obtain DNA samples without consent from those arrested or convicted for
non-recordable offences, as opposed to recordable offences as at present. The
samples would then be treated as all samples are now, being subject to indefinite
retention (even if the suspect is not convicted) and searching on the DNA database.
‘Non-recordable’ roughly means non-imprisonable, thus the reform would mean
that anyone arrested or convicted, no matter how minor or morally neutral the
offence (for example, failing to notify the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency of a
change of address), could be made to surrender information about their DNA to
the state and would, through the database, face hundreds of attempts each week
to connect their DNA profile to new crimes. How should we think about such
developments: are they mileposts on the road to some Orwellian dystopia, or are
they no more than a sensible way for the authorities to check the identity of
suspects and to clear up as many crimes as possible?
Carole McCartney’s Forensic Identification and Criminal Justice asks us to think about
such questions. The book is an analysis of forensic identification techniques,
concentrating on fingerprinting and DNA profiling. It contains very useful
material on the history of police powers to take fingerprints and DNA samples.
Powers to take fingerprints from suspects developed surprisingly late, only
coming in the 1960s, and were met by fears about civil liberties—fears which today
are barely visible. DNA sampling powers, of course, developed much later;
McCartney provides a good account of...
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