ADVERTISEMENTS

The director of Scotland Yard's forensics division says that Britain should be collecting DNA samples from any primary school children who show signs of behavior that exhibit a propensity for later crimes, according to an article in the Observer.

The Yard's Gary Pugh says the idea that trivial offenses committed early in life can forecast more serious crimes later in life is supported by studies, and that identifying these individuals when they're children would not only aid crime-solving later, but possibly deter some of these suspects from committing crimes when they're adults.

'If we have a primary means of identifying people before they offend, then in the long-term the benefits of targeting younger people are extremely large,' said Pugh. 'You could argue the younger the better. Criminologists say some people will grow out of crime; others won't. We have to find who are possibly going to be the biggest threat to society.'

Pugh admitted that the deeply controversial suggestion raised issues of parental consent, potential stigmatisation and the role of teachers in identifying future offenders, but said society needed an open, mature discussion on how best to tackle crime before it took place.

The director of Liberty, a civil liberties group in the UK, swatted Pugh for his suggestion. "Whichever bright spark at Acpo thought this one up should go back to the business of policing or the pastime of science fiction novels," she told the Observer.

The U.K. has the largest DNA database of any country, with samples from 5.2 percent of the country's population, according to Britain's Home Office. The Observer parses that figure to 4.5 million genetic samples.

Currently, the country collects samples only from crime scenes and from anyone over the age of 10 who is arrested for a recordable offense and detained in police custody, whether or not they are ever charged for the offense. It's estimated that a year from now the DNA database will hold about 1.5 million genetic samples taken from youths between the ages of 10 and 18.

Last year a UK judge said he believed the country should be taking DNA samples from the entire UK population and every visitor who enters its borders because otherwise a disproportionate number of people currently in the database are ethnic minorities, creating defacto racial profiling. He also said that taking samples only from people already arrested for crimes means that authorities miss the chance to solve other crimes committed by people who have never been arrested and have no DNA sample in the database.

Photo courtesy NIH

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.