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Forensic DNA Education for Law Enforcement Decisionmakers

CODIS Searches and Partial Matches

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CODIS Searches and Partial Matches

The original intent for allowing moderate stringency CODIS searches was to account for the fact that crime scene profiles are often partially degraded and/or contain DNA from more than one contributor.1 Allowing moderate stringency searches takes this into account so that full matches can be identified that might not otherwise have been detected.1 One unanticipated outcome from the use of moderate stringency searches is the potential to associate a crime scene profile to a relative of an offender profile. In these instances, a partial match is identified as a result of a routine DNA database search.

1 Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods Ad Hoc Committee on Partial Matches: SWGDAM Recommendations to the FBI Director on the "Interim Plan for the Release of Information in the Event of a 'Partial Match' at NDIS"Forensic Science Communications October 2009, Volume 11, Number 4.<

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