{"id":121,"date":"2009-05-08T12:28:50","date_gmt":"2009-05-08T11:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=121"},"modified":"2009-05-10T21:03:04","modified_gmt":"2009-05-10T20:03:04","slug":"dna-retention-stupid-or-scary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/05\/08\/dna-retention-stupid-or-scary\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA Retention: Stupid or Scary?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not so long ago, S\u00f8ren<\/span>\u00a0posted an item on this blog<\/a> welcoming the ECHR’s verdict that the UK policy of storing DNA samples from all people who’d been arrested, regardless of guilt, was in contravention of Human Rights laws.<\/p>\n

A couple of days ago, the UK government published its response.\u00a0 It’s either remarkably sinister or remarkably silly.<\/p>\n

In essence, the proposal is that, if you’ve been arrested but then not charged with, or acquitted of, an offence, your DNA can be kept for six or twelve years, depending on the offence for which you were arrested.\u00a0 The details are available from this page of the Home Office website<\/a>.\u00a0 And the rationale offered is… um…\u00a0 Well, let’s just say that there’s a few glaringly obvious problems.<\/p>\n

I feel a rant coming on…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

OK.\u00a0 The first thing to note is that there seems to be a few reasons offered as to why it’s necessary to keep a DNA database of innocent people.\u00a0 The Home Office is keen to point out that DNA evidence can help prove innocence.\u00a0 Other points raised relate to detection, and to public protection.\u00a0 Let’s look at them in turn.\u00a0 It won’t take long.<\/p>\n

(1) Proving Innocence.<\/strong>\u00a0 “The database has provided a pioneering method not only for catching the guilty but also in proving innocence,” says the Home Office.\u00a0 Doubtless.\u00a0 But they seem to have forgotten the idea that innocence is the starting<\/em> point when dealing with suspects.\u00a0 They don’t have to prove their innocence.\u00a0 That’s taken as read.\u00a0 Now, when it comes to appeal, that is reversed.\u00a0 (Here the presumption of innocence lies with the CPS, I suppose.)\u00a0 But, that being the case, it’s not clear how retaining the DNA of those never found guilty will make the blindest bit of difference, just because we’d be dealing with someone who has<\/em> been found guilty.\u00a0 Should it turn out that his DNA doesn’t match that from the crucial bloodstain, then that’s that.\u00a0 I can’t see for the life of me why it should be important that the DNA of people not guilty of anything should be retained.<\/p>\n

(2) Detection.<\/strong>\u00a0 This baffles me.\u00a0 Quite why keeping a record of those never found guilty of anything should help with hunting down those who are guilty of something is beyond me – unless, of course, the tacit assumption is that we’re all suspects of everything, and those who’ve been arrested just happen to be convenient gene-donors.\u00a0 That doesn’t seem to sit so easily with the presumption of innocence, though.\u00a0 Moreover, it seems to imply that what we really should be doing is taking a DNA sample from everyone<\/em>, the better to be able to nail them if they do ever happen to commit a crime.\u00a0 That’s a bit troubling, for reasons to which I’ll return.\u00a0 For the moment, I’ll satisfy myself by pointing out that, tacitly, the proposals seem to be saying that the innocent are only innocent because they’ve not been found guilty… yet.\u00a0 Give us time, and we’ll find something for which we can find them guilty, though.<\/p>\n

(3) Public Protection.<\/strong>\u00a0 This is the silliest of the lot.\u00a0 For one thing – and I’m going to assume that public protection means crime prevention\u00a0– a DNA database is only of any use on the presumption that crimes will be committed for which someone needs to be prosecuted.\u00a0 That is to say: a DNA database would be at its most useful precisely when crime prevention has demonstrably broken down.\u00a0 So that particular defence is incoherent.<\/p>\n

The other option is that the assumption is that the likelihood of offending is inversely proportional to the expected likelihood of detection.\u00a0 That seems to be dubious, and distasteful.\u00a0 It’s dubious because most crime is not “rational”: it’s a spur-of-the-moment thing.\u00a0 Pub brawls and burglaries just aren’t carried out on the basis of an assessment of the risk of getting caught; and, if they were, it’d be by people who thought that they had a reasonable chance of getting away with it.\u00a0 Meanwhile, terrorists – and everyone really does have to bleat on about terrorists, don’t they? – are unlikely to be bothered by worries about detection.\u00a0 The politically violent might very well welcome prosecution, since it gives them and their cause publicity; alternatively\u00a0– as in the case of recent religious terrorism – they don’t care about prosecution because they don’t really plan to survive.\u00a0 (Granted, terrorism often brings other crime – but that takes us back to the non-terroristic points I made.)<\/p>\n

Besides: what kind of protection is this?\u00a0 A world in which noone dares break the law out of fear of detection is a world in which people are unlikely to dare to do very much at all.\u00a0 Secure it may be, but so is a Panopticon<\/a>.\u00a0 That noone has anything to fear unless they have anything to hide is simply wrong.\u00a0 The fact that you’re under scrutiny is, in itself, a reasonable cause for alarm.\u00a0 If it’s true that those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear, then it should be OK for me to put a CCTV camera in your bathroom.\u00a0 I’m assuming that you don’t do anything particularly shameful in there.\u00a0 If you want to say that I oughtn’t because you have a right to privacy… well, gotcha.\u00a0 The same applies here.\u00a0 Even if you’ve not committed a crime, and don’t plan to, the mere fact that there’s a database with you on it is the sort of thing that reasonable people might well legitimately fear without thereby losing their rationality.<\/p>\n

The other aspect of keeping arrestees’ DNA is that, while some people are justly arrested even though they’re innocent – they might be reasonable suspects – others aren’t.\u00a0 Just last night, there was a programme on Radio 4 that featured an interview with someone who’d been at a climate change camp, and had been arrested under terrorism legislation on the basis that a document she was carrying might be of use to terrorists.\u00a0 In fact, it was a recipe for ice-cream.\u00a0 (You can listen again until the 14th May<\/a>\u00a0– skip ahead to 14:40 and the couple of minutes after that.)\u00a0 Admittedly, the ice-cream sounds disgusting<\/em>… but all the same.\u00a0 That’d be 12 years’ of DNA retention for a non-crime under current proposals.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I’m not sure how to end this post – it’s gone on long enough.\u00a0 But the idea that anyone who’s been arrested in England and Wales is liable to have their genetic data stored for six or twelve years seems to me to be deeply problematic.\u00a0 It’s either indefensible because it’s morally repellent, or indefensible because it’s incoherent.\u00a0 So: which is it?\u00a0 On\u00a0which horn of the dilemma shall we impale Jacqui Smith<\/a>, \u00a0Vernon Coaker<\/a>, and the rest? \u00a0None-too-nice or none-too-bright?<\/p>\n

Ach: sod it.\u00a0 I feel a poll coming on:<\/p>\n

DNA database policy<\/h1>\n

\"Mini<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mini<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mini<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mini<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

UPDATE, 10.v.09: Denny, at Liberal Conspiracy, makes largely the same case<\/a>, and provokes this rather wonderful response<\/a>\u00a0from Lee Griffin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not so long ago, S\u00f8ren\u00a0posted an item on this blog welcoming the ECHR’s verdict that the UK policy of storing DNA samples from all people who’d been arrested, regardless of guilt, was in contravention of Human Rights laws. A couple of days ago, the UK government published its response.\u00a0 It’s either remarkably sinister or remarkably […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,475,472],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-politics","category-thinking-aloud"],"yoast_head":"\nDNA Retention: Stupid or Scary? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/05\/08\/dna-retention-stupid-or-scary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DNA Retention: Stupid or Scary? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not so long ago, S\u00f8ren\u00a0posted an item on this blog welcoming the ECHR’s verdict that the UK policy of storing DNA samples from all people who’d been arrested, regardless of guilt, was in contravention of Human Rights laws. 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