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Building a Face, and a Case, on DNA
The New York Times ^ | 23 Feb 2015 | ANDREW POLLACK

Posted on 02/23/2015 7:03:12 PM PST by Theoria

There were no known eyewitnesses to the murder of a young woman and her 3-year-old daughter four years ago. No security cameras caught a figure coming or going.

Nonetheless, the police in Columbia, S.C., last month released a sketch of a possible suspect. Rather than an artist’s rendering based on witness descriptions, the face was generated by a computer relying solely on DNA found at the scene of the crime.

It may be the first time a suspect’s face has been put before the public in this way, but it will not be the last. Investigators are increasingly able to determine the physical characteristics of crime suspects from the DNA they leave behind, providing what could become a powerful new tool for law enforcement.

Already genetic sleuths can determine a suspect’s eye and hair color fairly accurately. It is also possible, or might soon be, to predict skin color, freckling, baldness, hair curliness, tooth shape and age.

Computers may eventually be able to match faces generated from DNA to those in a database of mug shots. Even if it does not immediately find the culprit, the genetic witness, so to speak, can be useful, researchers say.

“That at least narrows down the suspects,” said Susan Walsh, an assistant professor of biology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis who recently won a $1.1 million grant from the Department of Justice to develop such tools.

But forensic DNA phenotyping, as it is called, is also raising concerns. Some scientists question the accuracy of the technology, especially its ability to recreate facial images. Others say use of these techniques could exacerbate racial profiling among law enforcement agencies and infringe on privacy.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Science; Society
KEYWORDS: crime; dna; phenotyping

1 posted on 02/23/2015 7:03:12 PM PST by Theoria
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To: Theoria

The police in Columbia, S.C., released this sketch of a possible suspect based on DNA left at the crime scene. Parabon NanoLabs, which made the image, has begun offering DNA phenotyping services to law enforcement agencies.
2 posted on 02/23/2015 7:07:50 PM PST by Theoria (I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive)
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To: Theoria

I knew it....another renegade Mennonite from northern Indiana, probably on a cross country crime spree.


3 posted on 02/23/2015 7:09:20 PM PST by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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To: Theoria

I anxiously await the results of double blind testing, in which the DNA of random individuals of many different ages is submitted for face synthesis, and then random third parties try to match the synthetic faces with the actual faces of the people from whom the samples were taken.

It will be interesting to see those scores.


4 posted on 02/23/2015 7:12:58 PM PST by Steely Tom (Vote GOP for A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Theoria

“Others say use of these techniques could exacerbate racial profiling among law enforcement agencies and infringe on privacy.”

How, if ones innate characteristics are unique, is racial profiling going to be a problem?


5 posted on 02/23/2015 7:14:59 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: nascarnation

That Mennonite is probably from Inola, Oklahoma. ..


6 posted on 02/23/2015 7:15:54 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Theoria

A black male with dark eyes and hair. That really narrows it down, to 10 or 20 million.


7 posted on 02/23/2015 7:33:32 PM PST by iowamark (I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy)
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To: Theoria

How can they get an idea of approximate age from DNA??


8 posted on 02/23/2015 7:53:59 PM PST by leopardseal
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To: Theoria

Not surprised at the pictures. Not surprised at all.
But now we have a problem.
Racist computers.


9 posted on 02/23/2015 8:15:12 PM PST by Tupelo (I feel more like Philip Nolan by the day)
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To: leopardseal

‘Predicting a suspect’s age is not out of the question, either by analyzing markers that shut off certain genes as people grow older, he said.’


10 posted on 02/23/2015 8:23:48 PM PST by Theoria (I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive)
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To: shibumi

11 posted on 02/23/2015 11:31:05 PM PST by Salamander (Like acid and oil on a madman's face, reason tends to fly away.)
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To: nascarnation

Shipshewana.


12 posted on 02/24/2015 12:38:16 AM PST by shibumi ("Vampire Outlaw of the Milky Way")
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To: Salamander

Giving a new meaning to the term “educated guess.”


13 posted on 02/24/2015 12:39:34 AM PST by shibumi ("Vampire Outlaw of the Milky Way")
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To: nascarnation

A descendant of the West Africans who built America.

Whether they wanted to or not.


14 posted on 02/24/2015 7:23:09 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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