Human Identification: The Use of DNA Markers

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-v

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • B. S. Weir

   Pages 1-2

3. A method for quantifying differentiation between populations at multi-allelic loci and its implications for investigating identity and paternity

   • David J. Balding, Richard A. Nichols

   Pages 3-12

4. The effect of relatedness on likelihood ratios and the use of conservative estimates

   • John F. Y. Brookfield

   Pages 13-19

5. The effects of inbreeding on DNA profile frequency estimates using PCR-based loci

   • Bruce Budowle

   Pages 21-25

6. Correlation of DNA fragment sizes within loci in the presence of non-detectable alleles

   • Ranajit Chakraborty, Zhaojue Li

   Pages 27-36

7. Inference of population subdivision from the VNTR distributions of New Zealanders

   • Andrew G. Clark, J. Frances Hamilton, Geoffrey K. Chambers

   Pages 37-49

8. Conditioning on the number of bands in interpreting matches of multilocus DNA profiles

   • R. N. Curnow

   Pages 51-53

9. Match probability calculations for multi-locus DNA profiles

   • Peter Donnelly

   Pages 55-67

10. Population genetics of short tandem repeat (STR) loci

    • Peter Gill, Ian Evett

    Pages 69-87

11. Assessing probability of paternity and the product rule in DNA systems

    • David W. Gjertson, Jeffrey W. Morris

    Pages 89-98

12. The forensic debut of the NRC’s DNA report: population structure, ceiling frequencies and the need for numbers

    • D. H. Kaye

    Pages 99-105

13. Applications of the Dirichlet distribution to forensic match probabilities

    • Kenneth Lange

    Pages 107-117

14. The honest scientist’s guide to DNA evidence

    • Bruce S. Weir

    Pages 119-124

15. A comparison of tests for independence in the FBI RFLP data bases

    • P. J. Maiste, B. S. Weir

    Pages 125-138

16. Alternative approaches to population structure

    • Newton E. Morton

    Pages 139-144

17. DNA evidence: wrong answers or wrong questions?

    • Bernard Robertson, G. A. Vignaux

    Pages 145-152

18. Subjective interpretation, laboratory error and the value of forensic DNA evidence: three case studies

    • William C. Thompson

    Pages 153-168

19. Exact tests for association between alleles at arbitrary numbers of loci

    • D. Zaykin, L. Zhivotovsky, B. S. Weir

    Pages 169-178

20. A bibliography for the use of DNA in human identification

    • B. S. Weir

    Pages 179-213

The ongoing debate on the use of DNA profiles to identify perpetrators in criminal investigations or fathers in paternity disputes has too often been conducted with no regard to sound statistical, genetic or legal reasoning. The contributors to Human Identification: The Use of DNA Markers all have considerable experience in forensic science, statistical genetics or jurimetrics, and many of them have had to explain the scientific issues involved in using DNA profiles to judges and juries. Although the authors hold differing views on some of the issues, they have all produced accounts which pay due attention to the, sometimes troubling, issues of independence of components of the profiles and of population substructures. The book presents the considerable evolution of ideas that has occurred since the 1992 Report of the National Research Council of the U.S.
Audience: Indispensable to forensic scientists, laying out the concepts to all those with an interest in the use of genetic information. The chapters and exhaustive bibliography are vital information for all lawyers who must prosecute or defend DNA cases, and to judges trying such cases.

• Allele
• DNA
• PCR
• evolution
• genetic information
• genetics

Policies and ethics