Publications

Publications containing information on DNA technology and its applications in criminal justice systems.

Highlights

Implementing SANE Programs in Rural Communities
Office for Victims of Crime, 2008
This replication guide highlights one region's efforts to address the difficulties of starting and sustaining SANE programs in rural areas. Under the leadership of the state sexual assault coalition, the West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information and Services (FRIS), four counties in north-central West Virginia implemented the Regional Mobile SANE Project, using on-call SANEs to serve multiple hospitals.

This guide was developed to help other rural regions decide whether a mobile SANE project, customized to their local needs, might be a viable option.

Sexual Assault—Forensic and Clinical Management Virtual Practicum DVD
Office for Violence Against Women, April 2008
This comprehensive and cost-effective training tool can help advance skills in all aspects of sexual assault forensic examinations, from initial meeting to pretrial and courtroom preparation.
Learn more and purchase the practicum.

Increasing Efficiency in Crime Laboratories
National Institute of Justice, January 2008
Many crime laboratories report high backlogs for forensic services. These backlogs can delay court proceedings and case investigation. Laboratories report that they do not have the staff to complete all service requests or the budget to hire new employees. Some laboratories have recently begun addressing these challenges with efficiency techniques—called process mapping, an efficiency forum, and business process management. The NIJ In Short Increasing Efficiency in Crime Laboratories describes how laboratories across the country have successfully used these techniques to reduce backlogs.

Medical Examiners and Coroners' Offices, 2004 
Bureau of Justice Statistics, June 2007Presents key findings from the 2004 Census of Medical Examiners and Coroners' (ME/C) Offices. This special report describes the medicolegal investigation of death in the United States. It provides an overview of the personnel, budgets, and workload of these offices by type of office and size of jurisdiction. It also includes information on the number of unidentified human decedents handled by ME/C offices. The report examines record keeping practices and use of national databases for unidentified remains. Detailed data tables on topics covered in this report are available on the BJS website.

DNA: Critical Issues for Those Who Work with Victims (Video)
Office for Victims of Crime, April 2007
This 24-minute DVD (NCJ 211970) raises awareness for victim advocates, criminal justice practitioners, and others who work with crime victims about the issues involved for those whose cases involve DNA evidence. The video highlights issues such as collection and preservation of evidence, the crime's impact on the victim, victim notification at points along the process, and victim involvement and participation in the process.

View Clip | Order from NCJRS | View Entire Video (courtesy of the Denver DA's Office)

Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains: The Nation's Silent Mass Disaster
National Institute of Justice Journal 256, January 2007
If you ask most Americans about a mass disaster, they're likely to think of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, or the Southeast Asian tsunami. Very few people—including law enforcement officials—would think of the number of missing persons and unidentified human remains in our Nation as a crisis. It is, however, what experts call "a mass disaster over time."

View a list of all publications on DNA.gov