Blue-tinted DNA helixes

Begun Center’s Rachel Lovell explains the many ways DNA can help law enforcement

Alaska requires DNA be collected from people arrested for violent crimes. Many police have ignored that.

ProPublicaRachel Lovell, research assistant professor at the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education, said that DNA doesn’t just solve sexual assault cases, it can also deliver justice in burglary and murder cases, save government money on years-long investigations and even exonerate the wrongly accused. When the DNA is finally collected, she said, “there are crimes waiting to be solved.”