Understanding the Use and Efficacy of Moderate Stringency DNA Searches, United States, 2018 (ICPSR 37691)

Version Date: May 17, 2023

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Principal Investigator(s):
Tepring Piquado, RAND Corporation; James Anderson, RAND Corporation

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37691.v1

Version V1

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Summary

This study was undertaken to investigate familial DNA and moderate stringency DNA testing practices and to highlight the policy development, associated costs, limitations, and capabilities that DNA testing provides in order to offer relevant insight to criminal justice and law enforcement policymakers and researchers who are interested in the use of DNA testing to solve and deter crime.

Citation

Piquado, Tepring, and Anderson, James. Understanding the Use and Efficacy of Moderate Stringency DNA Searches, United States, 2018. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-05-17. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37691.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2014-IJ-CX-0005)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

None.

Restrictions

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2018

Date of Collection

2018-09-10 -- 2018-10-26

Data Collection Notes

  1. Study documentation references qualitative interview data from respondents in California, Texas, England, and Wales. Version 1 of the ICPSR release contains only quantitative survey data from SDIS and LDIS administrators in the United States.

  2. Additional information regarding this study can be found by visiting the RAND Corporation website.
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Study Purpose

The purpose of this study was to provide a baseline for criminal justice policymakers to better understand the ways in which familial DNA and moderate stringency testing are being used in the field today.

Study Design

Researchers conducted four related study tasks: (1) a literature review on familial and moderate stringency DNA searching, (2) a survey of varying familial and moderate stringency DNA policies and data from state and local forensic laboratories, (3) interviews from representatives of two states (California and Texas) that have used this technique in different ways, and (4) interviews with English and Welsh stakeholders.

Sample

The survey sample selected represented the universe as defined by all state and local forensic facilities that listed DNA testing as one of their services in the 2014 Census of Publicly Funded Crime Laboratories. There were 195 laboratories in the sample.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

State and local forensic facilities that listed DNA testing as one of their services in the 2014 Census of Publicly Funded Crime Laboratories.

Unit(s) of Observation

Organization

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

State DNA Index System (SDIS) 10/50 = 20% response rate. Local DNA Index System (LDIS) 32/145 = 22% response rate.

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Original Release Date

2023-05-17

Version History

2023-05-17 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.