Emerging forensic genetic technologies: Contested anticipations of legitimation, caution and social situatedness

Lawless, Christopher James

Abstract

This chapter sees the partially realised nature of these technologies as an opportunity rather than a problem. It utilises this opportunity to explore interpretations of emerging forensic DNA technologies to illuminate how they render orderings of various domains fluid and malleable. Such domains include the natural and social sciences, ethics, law, commerce and society at large. The chapter draws on the conceptual framing of interpretive flexibility as developed via social construction of technology studies, which have highlighted the different perceptions of technology on the part of different stakeholders embedded in sociotechnical networks. Differing standpoints and interpretations of technology may lead to contested plans and imaginaries. Framing technolegal anticipation (namely, anticipations of law-science-technology-society relations) in terms of embedded interpretive flexibility enables the chapter to illuminate differing normative interpretations of technology and sociotechnical engagement. Here, discursive responses to three notable examples of emerging forensic DNA methods are explored: rapid DNA analysis, forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP) and forensic genealogical testing. These three examples are presented in order to examine how their perceived status embodies differing assumptions concerning how science and wider society should engage, which, in turn, order relations between domains in different ways.

Citation

Lawless, C. J. (2022). Emerging forensic genetic technologies: Contested anticipations of legitimation, caution and social situatedness. In V. Toom, M. Wienroth, & A. M’charek (Eds.), Law, Practice and Politics of Forensic DNA Profiling: Forensic Genetics and their Technolegal Worlds. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429322358

• Online Publication Date: Dec 30, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-12
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 1, 2024
• Publisher: Routledge
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Book Title: Law, Practice and Politics of Forensic DNA Profiling: Forensic Genetics and their Technolegal Worlds
• Chapter Number: 8
• ISBN: 9780429322358
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429322358
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1619576