Chennai: Alarming rate of sexual crimes and repeat offence against women and children is drawing active participation from the government to fast track solutions.
Across States, efforts are being made to ramp up DNA capabilities and infrastructure to reduce pressure of backlogs in forensic labs and case pendency in courts. Experts claim that the DNA technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill will be a significant step in this direction to catalyse action and provision for a national and regional level DNA database of criminal offenders. This can substantially reduce crime rate in the country., as studies conducted by Prof. Jennifer Doleac (Texas A&M University) show how Europe and the US have been successful in bringing down repeat offence by 42 per cent, on average.
According to Supreme Court lawyer Pinky Anand, ‘DNA database has benefitted countries in one of the most efficient and effective ways while solving sexual crimes, exonerating the innocent and mitigating repeat offences. An access to DNA evidence in any criminal case can make or break its outcome. In other countries where DNA database has been created, DNA testing is a routine part of investigating and prosecuting all types of criminals and is often an important tool in achieving justice for survivors of sexual assault.’