Virginia Department of Forensic Science
DNA Databank Statistics
Databank Hits
Offender/Arrestee Samples in Database
Notes
- Total Hits: 8,587
- Total Samples: 360,284
- To see yearly totals, point mouse cursor over the corresponding bar in the above charts.
Crimes Solved/Assisted by Type
Total Investigations Aided: 8,433
Previous Criminal Conviction of Offenders Identified
Total Offender Hits: 7,143
The graph at the top demonstrates the dramatic impact that the size of the convicted offender sample database has on the hit rate to non-suspect cases. A hit occurs when the DNA profile from a crime scene sample with no suspect matches a DNA profile in a database of previously convicted offenders, a database of samples from those individuals arrested for specified crimes, or a database of other crime scene profiles. A record breaking 106 hits were achieved in the month of March, 2005.
A decision in 1998 to enter into a contract with a private laboratory to run backlogged convicted offender samples for three years combined with grant funding provided by NIJ, which allowed the Department to continue outsourcing the analysis of convicted offender samples into the summer of 2004, resulted in no backlog of convicted offender or arrestee samples. The Department remains current on the in-house analysis of these samples, and Virginia's databank now contains more than 360,000 offender and arrestee profiles.
It is the combination of these activities that led the Department of Forensic Science to score 283 hits in 2000. An additional 308 hits were obtained in 2001, 445 hits in 2002, 608 in 2003, 695 in 2004, 810 in 2005, 612 in 2006, 799 in 2007, 811 in 2008 (average 68 hits/month), 653 in 2009 (average 55 hits/month), 933 in 2010 (average 77 hits/month), 773 in 2011 (average 64 hits/month), and 723 in 2012 (average 60 hits/month). For the first two months of 2013, 134 hits were made to the databank. For 2003, 63 hits were made to the Arrestee Database (established January 1, 2003); in 2004 an additional 68 hits were made to arrestees, and in 2005 there were 107 arrestee hits. In 2006, 87 hits to arrestees were made. In 2007, there were 67 hits to arrestees. In 2008, there were 91 arrestee hits. In 2009, there were 76 arrestee hits. In 2010 there were 77 arrestee hits. In 2011 there were 77 arrestee hits. In 2012 there were 83 arrestee hits. For the first two months of 2013, 12 hits to arrestees were made. The first hit to the Arrestee Database occurred after the upload of the first 80 samples into the database! As of February 28, 2013, a total of 808 hits to the Arrestee Database had been obtained. 118 of the hits to arrestees were associated with sexual assault cases.
- Approximately 85% of hits would have been missed if the Databank was limited to only violent offenders.
- Approximately 39% of violent crimes solved were perpetrated by individuals with previous property crime convictions.
- DNA Databanks are most effective with inclusion of at least all felons and applied to all forms of cases.