Table 1

State policies for familial searching and partial match disclosure

States with formal familial searching policies

Parameter

California

Colorado

Texas

Virginia

Proportionality

Violent crimes

X

X

X

X

Nonviolent crimes

X

CODIS offenders searched

Convicted offenders

X

X

X

X

Arrestees

X

X

X

Tools for narrowing suspect pool

IBS

X

X

X

X

Likelihood ratio

X

X

X

X

YSTR analysis

X

X

X

X

Other policy specifics

Requires profiles on all 13 CODIS loci

X

X

X

X

Requires evidence profile to be single source

X

X

Permits mixtures with clearly defined profiles

X

X

Oversight committee

X^a

X^b

Requires specialized training of law enforcement

X

Requires public record verification before follow-up

X

States permitting partial match disclosure [4]

Arizona, Connecticut^c, Florida, Missouri and Nebraska^d, Nevada, New York, Oregon and Washington State^e, Wyoming

CODIS = Combined DNA Index System; IBS = identity-by-state; YSTR = Y-chromosome short tandem repeat. ^aFamilial Search Committee. ^bCommittee of four CODIS analysts recommends when to conduct familial searches. ^cRestricted to profiles where a genetic similarity "must raise the hair on the back of the analyst's neck to be worth pursuing" (Ram (2011) [4], p 770). ^d"Targeted analysis" may be conducted on a case-by-case basis and upon specific request (Ram (2011) [4], p 772). ^ePolicy addresses partial matches derived from routine moderate-stringency searches.

Kim et al. Investigative Genetics 2011 2:22   doi:10.1186/2041-2223-2-22