How easy or difficult can it be for someone to get your genetic information?
Imagine this. You’re going to a cafe and someone is following you. You go inside, have your meal and leave. The person following you then slyly comes to your table, uses a handkerchief, picks up the glass you had drank water from, and puts it in a plastic bag.
That’s it. That person now has your genetic fingerprint. Easy, right?
Have you ever wondered how it started? When did we first use DNA to catch criminals?
In 1986, in a village in England, a 15-year old girl was raped and murdered on her way home from school. Another school-girl was murdered in a similar way three years back in 1983. The police were wondering if there was any way to find out if these murders were committed by the same person? Maybe there was a psychopath killer out there.
Parallely, a new scientific technique was discovered by geneticist Alec Jeffrey, called DNA Fingerprinting. He observed that patterns in certain regions of a person’s DNA could be used to distinguish one individual from another and these patterns could prove inheritance. The technique was quickly used to determine the kinship; but was yet to be used in criminal investigation.
For the murder case, the police had arrested a suspect, however, they had nothing to prove that he was guilty. The police called Alec Jeffrey and asked if his new technique of DNA Fingerprinting could help them identify the murderer in this case. The first thing Alec did was match the DNA from both the semen samples. And BAM! It was the same person who had committed these crimes three years apart. For as small as this may sound today, because this is what we’ve become used to right now, it is more like a routine now, yet it was a major major breakthrough back then.
The suspect who was previously arrested was exonerated as his DNA did not match that of the semen sample. Finally, they decided to go all out and screen the entire neighborhood using this technology. Letters were sent to every male between the age of 17 to 34 who had lived or worked in the area in recent years, and were asked to give a blood sample. By one month, around 1,000 samples had been collected, yet, the culprit was not identified. The hunt went on. By eight months, more than 5,000 samples were screened with no match to the semen sample.
Almost after a year, somebody overheard a conversation between two people, one of whom confessed that he had impersonated the other and given the blood sample with a fake name. Colin Pitchfork, the person who had murdered both those girls had doctored his passport and inserted his colleague’s photo in it. He was a married man with two children. He was soon arrested and Colin gave a detailed confession of both the murders. Eureka! And the DNA finally matched that with the semen sample, confirming both the murders.
Colin Pitchfork, was the first criminal in history to be identified using genetic evidence. Post this case, the technology gained fame and investigative potential was soon recognized and incorporated by police forces in different countries. It has been over 30 years since then and the field of DNA profiling has been hugely revolutionarized. The methods have become faster, more sensitive, and more user-friendly. Afterall, all you need today is just a glass that the person has used, or maybe one strand of hair.
Any science or technology which is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic
– Arthur C. Clarke
Although DNA evidence alone is not enough to secure a conviction, DNA profiling has become a gold standard in forensic sciences since its inception over 30 years ago. According to some estimates, more than 50 million people have had their DNA tested during criminal investigations. Over 70 countries have created large, standing DNA databases. The first national DNA database was established in the UK in 1995. As of 2016, it holds 5.8 million DNA profiles. China has the biggest DNA database in the world, holding around 80 million profiles of DNA. India, as of now, is yet to have an official national DNA database, but projects are underway for the same.
What startled me about this story is that you never know when a new technology that comes along can change the face of the world. When Jeffrey in his first talk suggested that DNA fingerprinting could be used in criminal investigation, he was laughed upon. Today, every crime scene has a dedicated team of forensics to look for any DNA remains of the suspect. Human mentality very easily underestimates the potential of new things. We have artificial intelligence (AI) today that claims to know us more than what we know ourselves. No matter which age group we belong to, none of us have escaped being an audience of AI. So how far are we when AI will be used to predict the probable suspects of a crime based on past Google searches?
-Sanketa Raut
Samay and Solace 