Making Sense of Forensic Genetics: What can DNA tell you about a crime?

This guide is designed to introduce professional and public audiences to the use of DNA in criminal investigations; to understand what DNA can and can’t tell us about a crime, and what the current and future uses of DNA analysis in the criminal justice system might be.

Forensic DNA analysis is a complex area open to misinterpretation. So we set out to provide a straightforward guide for the police, judiciary, lawyers, jurors, journalists and those intrigued by criminal casework — in other words, anyone with an interest in the use of DNA for crime investigation. To help us, we approached Sense about Science and formed a public engagement partnership; they connected us with a wide public audience who gave us invaluable feedback on the guide.

Making Sense of Forensic Genetics is the final output of our European Union Seventh Framework Programme funded research and networking project, which has spanned five years and ranged in expertise from forensic geneticists and social scientists to representatives of the judiciary. The European Forensic Genetics
Network of Excellence will continue to exist independently from EC funding to provide information and training both to the scientific community and to the interested public.

The contributors’ disclosure of interests are available at: senseaboutscience.org/activities/making-sense-of-forensic-genetics