How Does DNA Fingerprinting Help In Solving Crimes?
DNA fingerprinting that is also termed as DNA profiling, DNA typing, genetic fingerprinting, genotyping, or identity testing in genetics, is a method of isolating and identifying different variables within the base-pair sequence of DNA.
What is the procedure for creating a DNA fingerprint?
DNA fingerprinting involves taking samples of cells such as blood cells, skin, hair, saliva which contain the DNA of the person.
The DNA in the procedure is extracted from the cells and purified to rectify its belongingness to a specific person.
The technique of DNA fingerprinting can serve as a very useful weapon for legal experts and forensics scientists to solve crimes as the procedure can prove whether the person is guilty or innocent of a crime.
Popular objects that can serve as a piece of evidence to determine the DNA –
- Eyeglasses of a person
- Clothes of person that contain blood, sweat or semen.
- Hat containing hair or dandruff
- Toothpick containing saliva
- Blankets and bed sheets containing hair, semen, dandruff or urine
- Bite mark on a person’s skin involving saliva
- The licked area of an envelope
- Fingernails containing blood or skin tissue
- Smoked cigarettes
- Cotton buds or facial tissues containing sweat or ear wax
- Toilet paper containing urine
- Used condoms and sanitary pads containing blood, etc.
DNA fingerprinting or DNA profiling is also extremely helpful in determining the paternity of a child in cases of civil disputes.
DNA analysis is frequently used in civil cases, maintenance proceedings Under section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and criminal cases.
Popular cases such as the Indian case of Priyadarshini Mattoo or the famous American Boston Strangler Case were solved through DNA analysis.
The Priyadarshini Mattoo case that involved a 25-year-old female law student who was found murdered at her house in New Delhi in 1996 was proved to also have been raped by Santosh Kumar Singh through the DNA analysis.
The Boston Strangler case that involved a 19-year-old female named Marie Sullivan who was found murdered in her rented apartment in Boston in January 1964 was raped and strangled to death by her attacker Albert DeSalvo.
Boston strangler is the name given to Albert DeSalvo, the murderer of 13 women in Boston, Massachusetts during the early 1960s, and the crimes were attributed to him based on the confessions made by him, involving other details and DNA evidence linking to his victims.
ALSO READ: What is DNA and what is the meaning of DNA fingerprinting?
