Families and Forensic DNA Profiles (At Law‪)‬

Law enforcement officials often turn to DNA identification methods to detect--and rule out--possible offenders. Every state operates its own database of convicted offenders' DNA profiles; some states store profiles of arrested people, too. The Federal Bureau of Investigation maintains a national database of profiles submitted by laboratories across the country. A few years ago, officials came up with a new way to use DNA profiles in forensic identification. Ordinary searches require an exact match between DNA found at a crime scene and a forensic DNA profile. A partial match means that the profiled individual should not be considered a suspect. But partial matches create another possibility: the crime scene DNA may come from a relative of the individual whose profile is in the database.