What DNA 'Fingerprinting' Can Teach the Law About the Rest of Forensic Science

The most important legacy of DNA 'fingerprinting' and the debate surrounding it will likely be a spillover of standards of empirical testing and statistical rigor to many other forensic sciences which, somehow, have exempted themselves from the conventional standards of scientific rigor. In short, the debate over DNA fingerprinting may compel the rest of forensic science to become more recognizably scientific. The purpose of this paper is to suggest the lessons to be learned by and about the rest of forensic science from the admirable model provided by the way the legal, academic, scientific, and forensic science communities have treated genetic fingerprinting.