New Issue Brief: Expanding DNA Databases Can Deter Crime

NEW YORK, NY — Expanding DNA databases to include more criminal offenders has a large deterrent effect on crime, according to a new issue brief by economist Jennifer Doleac for the Manhattan Institute (MI).

Doleac, an Associate Professor of Economics and Director of the Justice Tech Lab at Texas A&M University, has conducted research on DNA databases in the U.S. and Denmark. Legislation mandating the expansion of DNA databases provided opportunities to measure the causal effects of adding new offenders to them, and in two papers for the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Doleac and her co-authors found that:

• In several U.S. states, between 1994 and 2005, adding people convicted of a violent felony offense to a DNA database reduced the likelihood of another conviction within five years by 17 percent.
• In Denmark, adding felons to the DNA database reduced the likelihood of a new conviction by 42 percent in the first year, an effect that persisted for at least three years.

In the brief, part of MI’s Policing and Public Safety Initiative, Doleac discusses these findings and their policy implications, suggesting that DNA databases may be a less invasive, low-cost crime-reduction tool when compared with alternatives.

Click here to read the full report.

About the Policing and Public Safety Initiative

The Policing and Public Safety Initiative is an MI project encompassing research, journalism, and events that focuses on criminal-justice issues. The initiative expands on MI’s legacy of treating order and justice as complements, evaluating today’s pressing issues with an eye toward promoting community policing, preserving the hard-won gains that cities have made against crime, and allowing city dwellers to live peaceful, prosperous lives. As part of the initiative, MI commissions research from its own fellows and from external scholars and practitioners.