When DNA profiling was first introduced into the American   legal system in 1987, it was heralded as a technology that would   revolutionize law enforcement. As an investigative tool, it has lived up to   much of this hype--it is regularly used to track down unknown criminals,   put murderers and rapists behind bars, and exonerate the innocent.      Yet, this promise took ten turbulent years to be fulfilled.  In   Genetic Witness, Jay D. Aronson uncovers the dramatic early history of DNA   profiling that has been obscured by the technique's recent success.  He   demonstrates that robust quality control and quality assurance measures   were initially nonexistent, interpretation of test results was based more   on assumption than empirical evidence, and the technique was susceptible to   error at every stage. Most of these issues came to light only through   defense challenges to what prosecutors claimed to be an infallible   technology.  Although this process was fraught with controversy,   inefficiency, and personal antagonism, the quality of DNA evidence improved   dramatically as a result. Aronson argues, however, that the dream of a   perfect identification technology remains unrealized.

Genetic Witness: Science, Law, and Controversy in the Making of DNA Profiling PDF

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