DNA Probabilities in People v. Prince: When are racial and ethnic statistics relevant?
| dc.creator | Kaye, David H. | |
| dc.date | 2008-05-20 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T12:19:04Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T12:19:04Z | |
| dc.description | When a defendant's DNA matches a sample found at a crime scene, how compelling is the match? To answer this question, DNA analysts typically use relative frequencies, random-match probabilities or likelihood ratios. They compute these quantities for the major racial or ethnic groups in the United States, supplying prosecutors with such mind-boggling figures as ``one in nine hundred and fifty sextillion African Americans, one in one hundred and thirty septillion Caucasians, and one in nine hundred and thirty sextillion Hispanics." In People v. Prince, a California Court of Appeals rejected this practice on the theory that only the perpetrator's race is relevant to the crime; hence, it is impermissible to introduce statistics about other races. This paper critiques this reasoning. Relying on the concept of likelihood, it presents a logical justification for referring to a range of races and identifies some problems with the one-race-only rule. The paper also notes some ways to express the probative value of a DNA match quantitatively without referring to variations in DNA profile frequencies among races or ethnic groups. | |
| dc.description | Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/193940307000000491 the IMS Collections (http://www.imstat.org/publications/imscollections.htm) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org) | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/0805.3027 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.3027 | |
| dc.identifier | IMS Collections 2008, Vol. 2, 289-301 | |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.1214/193940307000000491 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/212626 | |
| dc.subject | Applications | |
| dc.subject | 62-06, 62P10, 62P99, 92D99 (Primary) | |
| dc.title | DNA Probabilities in People v. Prince: When are racial and ethnic statistics relevant? | |
| dc.type | text |