DNA Technology in Forensic Science (1992) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
4 ENSURING HIGH STANDARDS
4 ENSURING HIGH STANDARDS
Pages 97-110
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 97... ...
In some courts, there have been differences of opinion as to the reliability, acceptability, and applicability of the various methods and particularly the degree of their specificity or discriminating power. Regardless of the causes, practices in ONA typing vary and so do the educational backgrounds, training, and experience of the scientists and technicians who perform these tests, the internal and external proficiency testing conducted, the interpretation of results, and approaches to quality assurance.
|
From page 98... ...
. A comprehensive quality-assurance program must include elements that address education, training, and certification of personnel; specification and calibration of equipment and reagents; documentation and validation of analytic methods; use of appropriate standards and controls; sample handling procedures; proficiency testing; data interpretation and reporting; internal and external audits of all the above; and corrective actions to address deficiencies and weigh their importance for laboratory competence.
|
From page 99... ...
TWGDAM has also published a more detailed description of the proficiency-testing portion of the quality-assurance guidelines.2 The proficiency-testing guidelines for RFLP analysis describe the necessary elements of open and blind proficiency testing, including guidelines for documentation, review, and reporting of proficiency test results and deficiency and corrective actions.3 The TWGDAM guidelines, however, are just guidelines they must be implemented in a formal, detailed quality-assurance program. The committee recommends that laboratories engaged in forensic DNA typing adhere to the TWGDAM guidelines for quality assurance and proficiency testing and implement them in formal programs.
|
From page 100... ...
Although voluntary programs can have a positive effect, they suffer from the limitations that laboratories need not comply, that standard-setting need not be open to public scrutiny, and that accreditation might be contingent on membership in a professional organization. Accreditation programs required by federal or state law provide a greater level of assurance.
|
From page 101... ...
Medicine provides an appropriate analogy to forensic science, because it involves the application of sophisticated scientific methods to serious decisions that the practitioner must make on the basis of only partial information. Medicine has general mechanisms for setting standards of education and training of people, of laboratory practices and performance, and of quality assurance.
|
From page 102... ...
is a professional organization of approximately 350 members that has represented forensic-science laboratory directors since 1975. Although most forensic laboratories in the United States are publicly funded and mandated by state or federal statutes to examine physical evidence and perform forensic testing, a voluntary laboratory-accreditation program has been in operation since 1985 through the auspices of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors-Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD-LAB)
|
From page 103... ...
The New York state legislature has developed legislation to create a licensing program that was recommended by the Governor's Select Commission on DNA Typing, which was chaired by the state commissioner of criminal justice and consisted of lawyers, molecular biologists, forensic scientists, and population geneticists. It proposes that New York administer a licensing program with the advice of a scientific review board and a DNA advisory committee.
|
From page 104... ...
The proposal has serious implications for the standardization of practices, in that its success would require participating forensic laboratories to be capable of producing nearly identical results on a given sample. That requirement would drive the forensic community to adopt some standardized analytic methods, including molecular-weight markers, probes, controls, and methods for allele measurement.
|
From page 105... ...
Recently, however, ASCLD-LAB has shown a substantial interest in assuming an active role. At the annual meeting of ASCLD and ASCLDLAB in September 1990, the boards of both organizations passed with near unanimity a resolution to expand requirements for accreditation of forensic-science laboratories engaged in DNA typing, including mandatory proficiency testing at regular intervals.6 7
|
From page 106... ...
Of course, it remains for ASCLD-LAB to demonstrate that it will actively discharge the role of accreditation and mandatory proficiency testing. Any accreditation program would need to be advised by persons without ties to forensic laboratories that are engaged in DNA typing, in order to assure the public especially defendants- that it is independent and objective.
|
From page 107... ...
In the interim, courts should require forensic laboratories at least to demonstrate that they are effectively in compliance with the requirements for accreditation as outlined by TWGDAM and by this report; that would be taken as meeting generally accepted standards of practice. Second, the federal government should adopt legislation requiring accreditation of all forensic laboratories engaged in DNA typing.
|
From page 108... ...
· Mandatory accreditation falls within the interstate commerce clause, inasmuch as the standard of practice of forensic DNA typing laboratories profoundly affects citizens from states other than those of the laboratories. Thus, even state forensic laboratories would be covered.
|
From page 109... ...
· One of the best guarantees of high quality is the presence of an active professional-organization committee that is able to enforce standards. A1though professional societies in forensic science have historically not played an active role, ASCLD and ASCLD-LAB recently have shown substantial interest in enforcing quality by expanding the ASCLD-LAB accreditation program to include mandatory proficiency testing.
|
From page 110... ...
H.R. 339, DNA Proficiency Testing Act of 1991, 102nd Congress, 1st Session.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.