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Principles of Forensic DNA for Officers of the Court

DNA Typing

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Photo of Alec Jeffreys
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) (see reuse policy).

Forensic DNA testing as it is known today has a relatively short history. In 1985, Sir Alec Jeffreys developed a method to be used in forensic DNA identity testing. This method was based on the discovery that certain regions of the human genome contained segments of DNA that were repeated multiple times and exhibited a remarkable degree of genetic (and hence individual) variation.

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