Should a victim's DNA be used against her as evidence of another crime?

My own leanings aside, this one seems like a juicy issue with two sides.

I get privacy rights, but I also get the interests of society in convicting criminals and not allowing the law to be "abused."

My gut feeling is, we shouldn't let guilty people go free just because they may have been victims in the past, but it kind of raises the question of whether a victim of a crime should report it to an indifferent and impartial deep state that might someday later use it against her.

https://abovethelaw.com/2022/09/this-police-departments-dna-collection-was-so-unethical-new-laws-will-likely-be-made-preventing-it-from-happening-again/

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TheGreatLeveler · M

No. DNA should never be allowed to be used for a different purpose than what it was obtained for. That's a very dangerous path to walk.

bijouxbroussard · F

@TheGreatLeveler Playing Devil’s advocate for a moment, in my home state a serial rapist from decades ago is being tried after DNA from a genealogy site implicated him. Ten women.

In the case of the woman in the OP’s post they’re trying her for a theft, where nobody was physically injured.

Would you make an exception depending on the severity of the crime ?

TheGreatLeveler · M

@bijouxbroussard I think I read about that case. If it's about a serial killer/rapist that changed their modus operandi multiple times through the decades who finally got caught at his old age.

I don't feel that it's the same concept though. In this case they linked him to the crimes through DNA that was obtained voluntarily from some of his relatives for the specific purpose of solving those crimes. His personal medical privacy wasn't violated. I wouldn't have an issue with this. This tactic has also been used in my home country to solve two high profile murder cases.

If it was done similarly as the woman who had the rape kit and was later connected to the theft, I wouldn't have supported it. Even if the good far outweighs the bad in the case of a serial rapist or killer. Once you go down that path, there really is no limit to it.

Once you use stored DNA for different purposes then that's the end of medical privacy. They could obtain your DNA from any medical procedure and store it in one big database for life. I'm sure there are also plenty of commercial parties that would have an interest in obtaining it. Not to mention the risks of poor cybersecurity, which most governments are infamous for.

bijouxbroussard · F

@TheGreatLeveler That makes sense, and I agree. One fallout from this incident is with rape being underreported here anyway, a victim who knows they’ve been involved in even a petty crime would be less likely to come forward.

TheGreatLeveler · M

@bijouxbroussard They'd be less likely to have a DNA kit taken, knowing it could be used for any other purpose in the future. People might even be less willing to have necessary medical procedures in that scenario. Back in 2017, it was actually proposed by the ministry of justice in my home country to use DNA obtained by medical procedures, and link it with the criminal databases, to solve crimes. So it's not that far-fetched, and I think more countries will eventually try to push these sorts of legislations through at some point in the future. Combining big data with medical records will be the death of any privacy that people have left at this point.