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10 - DNA the Nor-way: black-boxing the evidence and monopolising the key

from Section 2 - National contexts of forensic DNA technologies and key issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2012

By
Johanne Yttri Dahl
Edited by
Richard Hindmarsh  and
Barbara Prainsack
Richard Hindmarsh
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Queensland
Barbara Prainsack
Affiliation:
King's College London
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Summary

INTRODUCTION

In July 2004, the Norwegian Government appointed the so-called Strandbakken Committee to consider changes in the laws regarding the forensic DNA database, which had become operational in 1999. In late 2005, exactly 10 years after it was first decided to establish a forensic DNA database in Norway, the committee submitted a White Paper to Parliament (Ministry of Justice and the Police 2005: 19). While the White Paper supported a substantial expansion of Norway's forensic DNA database, it also raised a number of issues about the use of DNA databases in criminal law administration. Approximately 35 stakeholders including government offices, other institutions and non-government organisation commented on the White Paper. These comments were collated in a proposition to the Odelsting (Odelstingsproposisjoner 19) (Ministry of Justice and the Police 2006), which served as an advisory document to Parliament.

Two years after the publication of the White Paper, in December 2007, the Norwegian Parliament ruled to expand the forensic DNA database and appropriated 64 million kroner (approximately €7 million) to finance this ‘DNA revolution’. According to Knut Storberget (2007), the Norwegian Minister of Justice, DNA analysis was an important tool in the battle against criminality, outperforming other forensic methods in efficiency and reliability by helping to free up police resources and raise detection rates for a variety of crimes, ranging from volume crime, serious crime and organised crime to national and international crime, which would lead to increased levels of security.

Type
Chapter
Information
Genetic Suspects
Global Governance of Forensic DNA Profiling and Databasing
 , pp. 197 - 217
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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