Didn't they make a movie about this?  Tom Cruise and someone else...stopping crimes by imprisoning people before they committed them??? 

Now, I hope I don't get flamed for this.  But Although I disagree with the targeting certain children, I DO think there should be a national dna database.  The reason is it will surely make crimes and murders and rapes so much easier to solve.  People say about their privacy and whatnot, to be honest, if you commit a crime, I don't think you should have tonnes of privacy rights.  I am on the victim end of a situation.  The creep has all the privacy in the world, to the point where i cannot even know when he is to be released,  I don't cre about their privacy. 

If they started a dna database, I would give my child's dna.  Sure, if my child did something horrible in the future, they deserve justice, just as anyone else.  If I knew my child did something, ir eally think i would turn them in. 

Doesn't anybody think, that if they did have a dna database, that families of victims of unsolved crimes would finally get closure as to who raped their child, or who murdered their brother? 

I won't flame you for your response but I will ask you this:  Do you think that your medical records, financial records and everything else should be on an unsecure database?  Do you think someone should be targeted because the "look" guilty? 

well, no certainly not.  However, straight dna from everyone, including finger prints in a database is as far as I will go.

I do not think people should be targeted, nor children.  I think everyone should be in the database

l.michelle

I think everyone should be in the database

Then you, by default, would agree that ALL of everyone's records be kept in a non-secure database.

Taking DNA profiles from people that "look" like they'll commit crimes also has shades of eugenics to it.  I mean, once we figure out that one particular base pair on chromosome 15 is what makes 'em be "anti social" we can screen for that at birth, or even better in utero.  We can abort the ones that have that particular base pair.  

It's just another step in the transformation of this country from free to the belief that we're free.   

Why is there no way for the database to be secure?  I don't see any reason why it couldn't be.

l.michelle

Why is there no way for the database to be secure?  I don't see any reason why it couldn't be.

No form of electronic storage is secure.  Especially not a multi-state, multi-jurisdictional one.   

Xerxes

l.michelle

Why is there no way for the database to be secure?  I don't see any reason why it couldn't be.

 

No form of electronic storage is secure.  Especially not a multi-state, multi-jurisdictional one.   

Sad but true, IMO... look at all the incidents these last couple of years with government employees taking home laptops with tons of personal information on it, then getting the laptops stolen. Not to mention hackers, who don't typically go after that sort of thing, but might decide to should it become more desirable.

Still, I'm on the fence about a DNA registry. People are increasingly being freed from jail because of DNA evidence exonerating them many years after they were found guilty. So on the one hand, it might protect people, but on the other hand, if innocent people can be convicted in the first place, obviously there are a lot of flaws in the judicial system. That's why we need to be so vigilant about protecting people's rights. Not to mention all the horror stories about people screwing up and putting innocent people on the "no fly list," or identity theft... imagine if the database screwed up and mixed up DNA records or something? Gah. Complicated issue, for sure. 

While the idea of giving troubled kids extra help to stay out of trouble is a good one (and part of the article) labeling children as young as FIVE years old as potential future criminals is insane.

1. It stigmatizes the child in the eyes of their parents, teachers, and others who come into contact with them who would know about it (like a doctor) and could very well create self-fulfilling prophecies. Someone tells a parent one of their kids has been identified as a future criminal and they're NOT going to start treating them differently?Right.

2. It could be used as prejudicial in a case where there IS no DNA evidence and the kid is completely innocent. "Sargent, who was nearby on the night of the crime?" "There were two kids there---Sam Smith and John Jones. I think Sam  could be the kid---he's already in the DNA database as a potential future offender." Anyone who tells me the police won't use this database to help narrow down suspects in cases where there is no DNA evidence is fooling themselves.

3. Kids who have done nothing wrong will be dumped into a database and their information can be used against them later in ways we can't even imagine. The possibilities for blackmail are staggering. Can you see the fellow running for political office getting a phone call "hey, if you don't want the whole world to know you were identified as a future offender you better pay up?"

As for putting EVEVRYONE in the system:

Xerxes

No form of electronic storage is secure.  Especially not a multi-state, multi-jurisdictional one.   

Not only is there no way to keep the information secure (this could take identity theft to a whole new level)  there is no guarantee it won't be corrupted by human error. A download of info is messed up, a wrong button is pushed and the police think Joe Smith is really John Smith.

I was on a list with the TSA because they mixed me up with an elderly woman who tried to bring pepper spray on an airplane. I was at home making breakfast for the kids and hadn't been in that airport in maybe 15 years, but I got put on the list and I had to jump through hoops to get my name removed.

We agree on something!  

In fact I completely agree with you on this particular subject for reasons stated above and more.