Criminal Justice Applications of Genetic Information

The long-term objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive analysis of the emergence of a new technological regime in criminal identification constructed around genetic information. The project is interested in examining and understanding the implicit and explicit connections between archival, forensic, and diagnostic applications of genetic information in the criminal justice system. The project further seeks to elucidate the employment of predatory sex offenders as "poster criminals" for this new regime. The project seeks to explore the connection between genetic information, behavioral genetics, end the construction of the sexually violent predator as a medico-legal entity. The project seeks to draw connections between the application of genetic information to criminal justice and the construction of criminality as a problem of mobility and surveillance. The specific aims of the project are the gathering, analysis, and synthesis of data documenting this socio-legal phenomenon and the publication of peer-reviewed journal articles disseminating this documentation. These articles will then be assembled into a book manuscript to be published by a university or serious trade press. Data gathered will be drawn from legal, scientific, medical, and popular literatures. The project will employ the methods of science and technology studies, socio-legal studies, risk studies, history, and sociology.