Investigating the Ethics of DNA Collection by CODIS

Authors

  • Tanay Subramanian Dougherty Valley High School
  • Alicia Kerr Dougherty Valley High School

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v10i2.1439

Keywords:

CODIS, DNA, Ethic, Criminal Justice, Marginalization

Abstract

America's criminal justice system has experienced controversy for decades and it seems as if the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), an FBI criminal justice database that stores the DNA profiles of millions of Americans, is a major contributor to it. Due to CODIS, an individual’s DNA is collected and permanently stored upon arrest, resulting in major red flags like privacy violations and marginalization. However, there are potential solutions - although each has its drawbacks - to this problem, in order of increasing efficacy: mandating the DNA collection of all Americans to alleviate biases, adopting a solely fingerprint-based system as forensic evidence, and terminating CODIS entirely.

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Author Biography

Tanay Subramanian, Dougherty Valley High School

Tanay Subramanian is an incoming senior at Dougherty Valley High School, where he competes in Varsity Extemporaneous Speaking and Varsity Congressional Debate with a nationally-ranked team. He is an avid jazz saxophonist and teaches dozens of students across the nation as part of Tanay's Music Foundation, donating the proceeds to charitable organizations. In his past time, he enjoys performing jazz music at public events, in addition to devouring neuroscience research. When he is not busy volunteering at John Muir Hospital or shadowing a cardiologist, he can be seen leading his Boy Scout troop as an Eagle Scout.

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Published

07-01-2021

How to Cite

Subramanian, T., & Kerr, A. . (2021). Investigating the Ethics of DNA Collection by CODIS. Journal of Student Research, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v10i2.1439

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2021)

Section

HS Research Articles

Copyright (c) 2021 Tanay Subramanian; Alicia Kerr

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