Governing expectations of forensic innovations in society: the case of FDP in Germany

Abstract

This article is about the governance of expectations of forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP) innovations in Germany used for the prediction of human externally visible traits such as eye, hair, and skin color, as well as biological age and biogeographic ancestry. In 2019, FDP technologies were regulated under the label “extended DNA analysis”. We focus on the expectations of members of the forensic genetics’ community in Germany, in anticipation and response to those of regulators who advocated for such technologies. Confronted with regulators’ expectations of omnipotent technologies and the optimistic promise that they will enhance public security, forensic geneticists responded with attempts to adjust such expectations, specifying limits and risks, along with a particular logic sorting matters of concern. We reflect on how forensic geneticists’ govern expectations through forms of distributed anticipatory governance, delimiting their obligations, and distributing accountability across the criminal justice system.

Keywords:

• forensic geneticists
• sociology of expectations
• forensic DNA phenotyping
• anticipatory governance
• accountability

Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful for the comments received from two anonymous reviewers and the journal editors, as well as the whole team of the EXCHANGE project for the continuous support in discussing the empirical case. Furthermore, we are thankful to our interviewees for their availability to share their views with us. The paper in an earlier version has benefitted from discussions with excellent colleagues at a workshop entitled “The ‘good society’ in the genomic body? Ethics and politics of emerging technologies for human identification in London” and funded by the EXCHANGE project, namely Matthias Wienroth, Rafaela Granja, Dana Wilson-Kovacs, David Skinner, Ernesto Schwartz-Marin, Sarah Abel and Chris Lawless. The work has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement N.°[648608]), within the project “EXCHANGE – Forensic geneticists and the transnational exchange of DNA data in the EU: Engaging science with social control, citizenship and democracy”, led by Helena Machado and hosted by the Institute for Social Sciences and CECS (Communication and Society Research Centre) at the University of Minho (Portugal).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Although two murder cases in the regional state of Baden-Württemberg occurred and stimulated the media and policy debate initially, it was the Freiburg case that triggered the public outcry.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by H2020 European Research Council [grant number 648608] and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [grant number CEECIND/03611/2018/CP1541/CT0009].