Forensic Casework Samples

In a 2005 Census of Publicly Funded Crime Laboratories, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) found the typical laboratory performing DNA testing began the year with a backlog of 86 DNA cases and finished the year with 152 backlogged cases (a 77% increase in the backlog). Using data collected in a similar BJS census of publicly funded crime laboratories conducted in 2002, the typical DNA laboratory received 337 new DNA cases in 2005, compared with 246 new cases in 2002 (a 37% increase in the number of DNA cases submitted to the laboratory).

The significant backlog of casework samples is caused by a demand for DNA analyses without a corresponding growth in forensic laboratory capacity.

Through data collected from a large, representative sampling of local law enforcement agencies in the United States, an NIJ-funded study from 2003 — National Forensic DNA Study Report (pdf) — arrived at the following estimates:

• The number of rape and homicide cases with possible biological evidence which local law enforcement agencies have not submitted to a laboratory for analysis is over 221,000.
• Homicide cases - 52,000 (approximate)
• Rape cases - 169,000 (approximate)
• The number of property crime cases with possible biological evidence which local law enforcement agencies have not submitted to a laboratory for analysis is over 264,000.
• The number of unanalyzed DNA cases reported by State and local crime laboratories is more than 57,000.
  • State laboratories - 34,700 cases (approximate)
  • Local laboratories - 22,600 cases (approximate)
• Total crime cases with possible biological evidence either still in the possession of local law enforcement, or backlogged at forensic laboratories is over one half million (542,700).