Table Of ContentLAW, PRACTICE AND POLITICS
OF FORENSIC DNA PROFILING
This collection reviews developments in DNA profiling across jurisdictions with a
focus on scientific and technological developments as well as their political, ethical, and
socio-legal aspects. Written by leading scholars in the fields of social studies of forensic
science, science and technology studies and socio-legal studies, the book provides
state-of-the-art analyses of forensic DNA practices in a diverse range of jurisdictions,
new and emerging forensic genetics technologies and issues of legitimacy.
The work articulates the various forms of technolegal politics involved in the
everyday, standardised and emerging practices of forensic genetics and engages with
the most recent scholarly and policy literature. In analyses of empirical cases, and by
taking into account the most recent technolegal developments, the book explores
what it means to live in a world that is increasingly governed through anticipatory
crime control and its related risk management and bio-surveillance mechanisms,
which intervene with and produce political and legal subjectivities through human
bodies in their DNA.
This volume is an invaluable resource for those working in the areas of social
studies of forensic science, science and technology studies, socio-legal studies,
sociology, anthropology, ethics, law, politics and international relations.
Dr Victor Toom is scientific staff at the Netherlands Scientific Council for
Government Policy, The Hague, the Netherlands.
Dr Matthias Wienroth, Centre for Crime and Policing, Department of Social
Sciences, University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Amade M’charek is Professor of Anthropology of Science at the Department of
Anthropology, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
LAW, PRACTICE AND
POLITICS OF FORENSIC
DNA PROFILING
Forensic Genetics and their
Technolegal Worlds
Edited by Victor Toom, Matthias Wienroth
and Amade M’charek
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
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© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Victor Toom, Matthias Wienroth
and Amade M’charek; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Victor Toom, Matthias Wienroth and Amade M’charek to
be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
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without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-367-33849-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-38528-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-32235-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429322358
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements viii
Bibliographical details ix
Introduction 1
1 Forensic genetics and their technolegal worlds 3
Victor Toom, Matthias Wienroth and Amade M’charek
PART I
DNA profiling and database governance 21
2 Technolegal worlds in an armed conflict: The forensic
making of victims in Colombia 23
María Fernanda Olarte-Sierra and Jaime Enrique Castro Bermúdez
3 Travelling promises: Forensic DNA databases in Brazil’s
technolegal setting 38
Vitor Simonis Richter and Luiza Louzada
4 Forensic DNA analysis and database governance in Ghana 56
Aaron Opoku Amankwaa and Judith Amankwa Addo
vi Contents
5 Legislating forensic genetics in South Africa: Science,
justice and the occlusion of race in postapartheid
DNA databasing 72
Noah Tamarkin
PART II
New and emerging innovations and applications 91
6 From promise to practice: Anticipatory work and the
adoption of massive parallel sequencing in forensics 93
Roos Hopman, Irene van Oorschot and Amade M’charek
7 Deliberating forensic genetics innovations: The case
of rapid DNA technologies in England and Wales 111
Dana Wilson-Kovacs
8 Emerging forensic genetic technologies: Contested
anticipations of legitimation, caution and social situatedness 127
Christopher James Lawless
PART III
Issues of legitimacy 145
9 Systemic (mis)trust in technolegal worlds: Three key trust
relationships in forensic genetics 147
Matthias Wienroth
10 Why is DNA not enough?: The multiple temporalities of
family reunification in Finland 165
Anna-Maria Tapaninen and Ilpo Helén
11 Evaluating forensic DNA databases 183
Carole McCartney and Aaron Opoku Amankwaa
12 The stakes of forensic phenotypic profiling: Can solidarity help? 201
Barbara Prainsack and Gabrielle Samuel
13 Conceptions of consent, family and jurisdiction in forensic
genetic genealogical searches 217
Erin Murphy
Contents vii
Epilogue 235
14 Technolegal policies and practices: Studying the past,
present and future of forensic genetics 237
David Skinner
Index 245
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book was largely written during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020–2022. As
a result, it is a testament to its contributors’ resilience during times of restrictions
to meeting family, friends and colleagues; travel bans; working from home; online
meetings; teaching students via video link; and perhaps also schooling their own
children at home. Add to that mix quarantine and isolation due to ‘testing positive’,
being ill with COVID, and perhaps only slowly growing used to living with ‘long
COVID’. During these difficult two years, life ran at a different pace than before,
with new routines, duties and challenges. Nevertheless, our authors composed and
edited their chapters, and you hold the result in your hands.
As editors, we are grateful to those who made this volume possible. First and
foremost, of course, we thank all contributors for their chapters and the good
humour with which they engaged with our suggestions. Second, some of our col-
leagues set an extraordinary scholarly example that inspired us. While not everyone
was on board to contribute to this volume, we hope that you notice that we follow
a path laid out by you. In particular, we would like to acknowledge Simon Cole,
Mike Lynch, Helena Machado and Robin Williams for your work, inspiration,
collegiality and mentorship. We also want to acknowledge the European Research
Council for having provided us with space to meet and work together in Amsterdam
and elsewhere through an ERC Consolidator Grant (FP7–617451-RaceFaceID-
Race Matter: On the Absent Presence of Race in Forensic Identification). Lastly,
very important persons have worked in the background, allowing the book to be
made: our partners who have provided support and hot tea during cold nights and
the marvellous editorial staff at Routledge.
Victor Toom, Matthias Wienroth and Amade M’charek
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Editors and contributing authors
Judith Amankwa Addo
School of Law, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Judith Amankwa Addo (PhD Candidate) is currently pursuing her PhD in Law at
Northumbria University, researching young people and criminal appeals in Eng-
land and Wales. She holds a MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Keele
University and a BA (Hons) Sociology from Kwame Nkrumah University of Sci-
ence and Technology – Ghana. Her research interests include youth justice, miscar-
riage of justice, appeals and forensic science.
Aaron Opoku Amankwaa
Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
United Kingdom
Aaron Opoku Amankwaa (PhD) is an Assistant Professor in Forensic Science,
Department of Applied Sciences at Northumbria University. His primary research
is focused on three key themes: 1) the evaluation of the effectiveness of forensic
science applications and technologies; 2) development of forensic genetic testing
and 3) development and evaluation of crime reduction initiatives.
Jaime Enrique Castro Bermúdez
Fiscalía General de la Nación, Colombia, Bogotá
Jaime is an anthropologist, specialist in human rights (ESAP) and master in crim-
inology and victimology (ESPOL). He works as forensic anthropologist expert
and judicial investigator of the Technical Investigation Body of the Attorney Gen-
eral’s Office in Colombia. He has more than 23 years of experience working in
the search for disappeared persons and the recovery and identification of bodies
