Solving Property Crimes with DNA: The Virginia Experience

Virginia's DNA Databank has proven remarkably successful. In 2002, the Databank contained 186,740 offender profiles, against which 445 hits were made for property crimes that year. As of 2007, the Databank contained 269,709 profiles, with 4,560 property crime hits. More than 1,000 property crime hits have been made since the Databank's inception.

Of those hits:

• 2,849 solved a property crime or assisted in a burglary investigation.
• 4,060 revealed that the property crime suspect had a prior offense record:
  • 1,906 for other property crime or theft related offenses.
  • 573 for violent offenses.
  • 693 for drug offenses.

According to the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, 80 percent of these hits would have been missed if DNA evidence had not been collected in property crimes (if evidence had been collected only in violent crimes).