Davis Robert C, Wells William
Police Foundation, United States.
Sam Houston State University, United States.
Forensic Sci Int. 2019 Jun;299:44-48. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.03.031. Epub 2019 Mar 23.
We examined 1200 sexual assault cold cases from Denver, Colorado to ascertain the rate of successful prosecution in which there was a DNA suspect match and the cost per conviction.
Nearly 40% of the cases in which there was a DNA match failed to result in an arrest or prosecution primarily because victims were uncooperative or their testimony was judged to be unreliable. Other factors affecting conviction included crime context, victim availability, and the ability of the defendant to mount a consensual sex defense. Once an arrest had been made, however, the conviction rate exceeded 90%. We estimate that Denver's sexual assault DNA testing program cost roughly $16,000 per conviction.
Our results lend strong support to the value of testing sexual assault kits (SAKs) even in cold cases. This suggests that programs such as Federal Solving Cold Cases with DNA Program are well worth the investment.
我们调查了科罗拉多州丹佛市的1200起性侵犯悬案，以确定在存在DNA嫌疑人匹配的情况下成功起诉的比率以及每次定罪的成本。
在有DNA匹配的案件中，近40%未能导致逮捕或起诉，主要原因是受害者不合作或其证词被判定不可靠。影响定罪的其他因素包括犯罪背景、受害者是否可找到以及被告进行双方自愿性行为辩护的能力。然而，一旦进行了逮捕，定罪率超过90%。我们估计丹佛市的性侵犯DNA检测项目每次定罪的成本约为16,000美元。
我们的结果有力地支持了即使在悬案中检测性侵犯证据采集包（SAK）的价值。这表明诸如联邦利用DNA解决悬案项目等计划非常值得投资。
