“We should encourage survivors to come forward—not collect evidence to use against them in the future.” (From 2022)
, saying the use of her DNA was a violation of her Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The incident could deter survivors of sexual assault from coming forward if they think their DNA could be used to implicate them in a future crime. It also raises legal and ethical questions about the broader law enforcement use of genetic evidence. “We should encourage survivors to come forward—not collect evidence to use against them in the future.
“Sexual assault victims subject themselves to this very invasive exam for one purpose, and that is to identify their assailant,” says Camille Cooper, vice president of public policy at RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, a nonprofit that aims to prevent sexual assault and help survivors. “Any use of their DNA for any other purpose is wholly inappropriate and unethical.”
And yet, there’s currently no uniform practice regarding what crime labs do with reference DNA samples after testing. Federal law does prohibit police from uploading victims’ DNA profiles to a national database known as the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, which is maintained by the FBI. CODIS is used to link violent crimes like homicides and sexual assaults to known offenders and has strict rules for what kind of profiles can be submitted.
But some local police departments operate their own DNA databases outside the purview of CODIS. Most states don’t have laws limiting the kinds of DNA samples that can be stored in them. “Police departments around the country have, over time, developed these separate databases that are largely unregulated,” says Andrea Roth, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley who specializes in forensic science and has researched these databases.
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