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Efficient DNA Sampling in Burglary Investigations

In terms of crime scene investigations by means of forensic DNA-analyses, burglaries are the number one mass crime in Switzerland. Around one third of the DNA trace profiles registered in the Swiss DNA database are related to burglaries. However, during the collection of potential DNA traces within...

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Autores principales: Tièche, Colin Charles, Dubach, Markus, Zieger, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8774317/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35052367
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes13010026
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author Tièche, Colin Charles
Dubach, Markus
Zieger, Martin
author_facet Tièche, Colin Charles
Dubach, Markus
Zieger, Martin
author_sort Tièche, Colin Charles
collection PubMed
description In terms of crime scene investigations by means of forensic DNA-analyses, burglaries are the number one mass crime in Switzerland. Around one third of the DNA trace profiles registered in the Swiss DNA database are related to burglaries. However, during the collection of potential DNA traces within someone’s residence after a burglary, it is not known whether the sampled DNA originated from the perpetrator or from an inhabitant of said home. Because of the high incidence of burglaries, crime scene investigators usually do not collect reference samples from all the residents for economical and administrative reasons. Therefore, the presumably high probability that a DNA profile belonging to a person authorized to be at the crime scene ends up being sent to a DNA database for comparison, has to be taken into account. To our knowledge, no investigation has been made to evaluate the percentage of these non-perpetrator profiles straying into DNA databases. To shed light on this question, we collected reference samples from residents who had been victims of recent burglaries in their private homes. By comparing the profiles established from these reference samples with the profiles generated from trace DNA, we can show that the majority of the DNA samples collected in burglary investigations belong to the residents. Despite the limited number of cases included in the study, presumably due to a crime decline caused by the pandemic, we further show that trace DNA collection in the vicinity of the break and entry area, in particular window and door glasses, is most promising for sampling perpetrator instead of inhabitant DNA.
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spelling pubmed-87743172022-01-21 Efficient DNA Sampling in Burglary Investigations Tièche, Colin Charles Dubach, Markus Zieger, Martin Genes (Basel) Article In terms of crime scene investigations by means of forensic DNA-analyses, burglaries are the number one mass crime in Switzerland. Around one third of the DNA trace profiles registered in the Swiss DNA database are related to burglaries. However, during the collection of potential DNA traces within someone’s residence after a burglary, it is not known whether the sampled DNA originated from the perpetrator or from an inhabitant of said home. Because of the high incidence of burglaries, crime scene investigators usually do not collect reference samples from all the residents for economical and administrative reasons. Therefore, the presumably high probability that a DNA profile belonging to a person authorized to be at the crime scene ends up being sent to a DNA database for comparison, has to be taken into account. To our knowledge, no investigation has been made to evaluate the percentage of these non-perpetrator profiles straying into DNA databases. To shed light on this question, we collected reference samples from residents who had been victims of recent burglaries in their private homes. By comparing the profiles established from these reference samples with the profiles generated from trace DNA, we can show that the majority of the DNA samples collected in burglary investigations belong to the residents. Despite the limited number of cases included in the study, presumably due to a crime decline caused by the pandemic, we further show that trace DNA collection in the vicinity of the break and entry area, in particular window and door glasses, is most promising for sampling perpetrator instead of inhabitant DNA. MDPI 2021-12-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8774317/ /pubmed/35052367 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes13010026 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tièche, Colin Charles
Dubach, Markus
Zieger, Martin
Efficient DNA Sampling in Burglary Investigations
title Efficient DNA Sampling in Burglary Investigations
title_full Efficient DNA Sampling in Burglary Investigations
title_fullStr Efficient DNA Sampling in Burglary Investigations
title_full_unstemmed Efficient DNA Sampling in Burglary Investigations
title_short Efficient DNA Sampling in Burglary Investigations
title_sort efficient dna sampling in burglary investigations
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8774317/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35052367
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes13010026
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