Because minorities are arrested at a higher rate than non-minorities, they are disproportionately impacted by the current policy, which consistently collects the DNA of arrestees.
In fact, “the use of familial searching using DNA sampled upon arrest may put ‘roughly a third of the African American population’ under surveillance, ‘compared with about 7.5 percent of the European American population’” (Cox).
Due to overrepresentation in the database, minorities face reinforced “views about the alleged prevalence of criminality.” CODIS perpetuates stereotypes about marginalized communities. These statistics also mean that more crimes committed by African Americans are solved, while a higher percentage of crimes likely committed by Caucasians are unsolved due to lack of DNA proof. This adds to systemic racism by making it seem like more Black Americans are criminals as a proportion of the population.
This extends beyond a simple prevalence – “African Americans may face discrimination as a population based on sickle cell trait” (Cox). The National Research Council’s Panel on DNA Technology in Forensic Science stated that “use of a data bank for other than law enforcement suspect identification purposes should be expressly prohibited and subject the abuse to criminal penalties” in order to prevent eugenics research targeting African American sickle cell. Unfortunately, there are currently no express bans on non-law enforcement usage of the database.
In fact, “the use of familial searching using DNA sampled upon arrest may put ‘roughly a third of the African American population’ under surveillance, ‘compared with about 7.5 percent of the European American population’” (Cox).
Due to overrepresentation in the database, minorities face reinforced “views about the alleged prevalence of criminality.” CODIS perpetuates stereotypes about marginalized communities. These statistics also mean that more crimes committed by African Americans are solved, while a higher percentage of crimes likely committed by Caucasians are unsolved due to lack of DNA proof. This adds to systemic racism by making it seem like more Black Americans are criminals as a proportion of the population.
This extends beyond a simple prevalence – “African Americans may face discrimination as a population based on sickle cell trait” (Cox). The National Research Council’s Panel on DNA Technology in Forensic Science stated that “use of a data bank for other than law enforcement suspect identification purposes should be expressly prohibited and subject the abuse to criminal penalties” in order to prevent eugenics research targeting African American sickle cell. Unfortunately, there are currently no express bans on non-law enforcement usage of the database.
