DNActivity: International cooperation in activity level interpretation of forensic DNA evidence.

• Questions posed to expert witnesses by the legal community and the courts are expanding to include not just those relating to source level (i.e. ‘who is the donor of the trace?’) but also those relating to activitity level (i.e. ‘how did the DNA get there?’). The answers to these questions are usually formulated as the probability of the evidence under alternative scenarios. As activity level questions are part of investigative and legal considerations it is of paramount importance that expert witnesses are provided with knowledge and tools to address these questions.To answer such questions within a probabilistic framework, empirical data is needed to estimate probabilities of transfer, persistence and recovery of DNA as well as background levels of DNA on everyday objects. There is a paucity of empirical data on these topics, but the number of studies is increasing both through in-house experiments and experimental data published in international scientific journals.Laboratories that conduct such studies all use different experimental setups, trace recovery strategies and techniques and DNA analysis systems and equipment. It is essential for the forensic genetics community in general to establish whether the data generated by different labs are in concordance, and can therefore be readily used by the forensic community.Moreover, if existing data and data generated from future experiments are made available to the (forensic) community, knowledge is needed on the key factors that underlie potential interlaboratory variation.The aims and objectives of this ENFSI Monopoly 2013 project are to conduct a study of methodologies and data from different laboratories and to assess the comparability of the scientific data on transfer, persistence and recovery of DNA. This comparison will allow us to identify key factors that underlie potential variation. This information will be used to setup guidelines to enable sharing and database-storage of relevant scientificdata. This will improve the ability of forensic scientists and other professionals of the Criminal Justice System to give evidence-based answers to questions that relate to the activity level of the crime under investigation.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Annan medicin och hälsovetenskap -- Rättsmedicin (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Other Medical and Health Sciences -- Forensic Science (hsv//eng)

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