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DNA In Criminal Investigations

763 Words4 Pages

Nursaule Bereketova
10 A grade
The application of DNA in criminal investigations
Introduction
Day by day, science is developing more and more. My point is that the excellence of such development is not only the deeper understanding of theories, but also the ability to imply the scientific knowledge in real life. The key point is that if XIX and XX centuries were the times of discoveries and theories, the end of XX century and XXI are the times when scientists started to use those theories with a purpose to connect science and life; to make the level of human development higher and to simplify our lives. One of the examples of science application is the use of DNA in criminal investigations.
Explanation of what DNA is and its applications
DNA …show more content…

Additionally, DNA can be used to clarify suspects or excuse mistakenly convicted people. This means that thanks to ability to apply DNA and technology the criminal justice system is being improved. This is very useful as people won’t suffer from unfairness thanks to accurate results taken. You know that sometimes judges take wrong decisions in courts and people sit in the prison for many years for crimes that they didn’t commit. So, the application of DNA in criminal investigations solves the problem of unfair criminal …show more content…

History of first DNA application
In 1984, Alec Jeffreys discovered the technique of genetic fingerprinting in a laboratory in the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester in London. He found out that certain areas of the DNA strand of a person contain patterns that repeat many times. The number of these repetitions is unique to each person except for identical twins, who have the exact same DNA. By finding the length of those repetitions Jeffreys found a test called as restriction fragment length polymorphism. After his discovery other method were found and that’s why RFLP is used rarely.
How is DNA applied?
There are three methods of DNA profiling: RFLP, PCR and STR.
RFLP: DNA is cut by restriction enzymes according to repeated sequences of DNA bases, which is unique for every person. The segments taken are separated using a laboratory technique called electrophoresis. It differentiates the fragments by length. So RFLP measures the variation in length of the

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