Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/62583
Title: The dimensions of ‘forensic biosecurity’ in genetic and facial contexts
Contributor(s): Kruger, Erin (author); Porter, Glenn  (author)orcid ; Birch, Philip (author); Bizo, Lewis  (author); Kennedy, Michael  (author)
Publication Date: 2024
Open Access: Yes
DOI: 10.1057/s41284-024-00445-1
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/62583
Abstract: 

This article seeks to examine the co-productions of security and emerging technologies in the two contexts of forensic genetics and forensic facial identifcation. These surfacing co-productions, deemed here as 'forensic biosecurity', are evolving rapidly in both theoretical and practical terms. Defnitions and conceptualisations of security are contingent and multiple, impacting forensic biological techniques and innovations in both predictable and unpredictable ways. The military, counter-terrorism, law enforcement, immigration, customs, border patrol, mass disasters, cold case reviews, health, defence, private security, and biometric applications are just a few of the many security environments where forensic biological techniques are applied. The continual development of variations in forensic genetics and facial identifcation renders a futher blurring of traditional evidence with that of intelligence. Drawing in particular from Joly's (in: S. Hilgartner, C. Miller, and R. Hagendijk (eds) Science and democracy: Making knowledge and making power in the biosciences and beyond, Taylor and Francis, London, 2015) work on emerging technologies, forensic biosecurity is analysed from a science and technology studies (STS) perspective. An emerging technology in the initial stages is thought to be highly flexible with the potential impacts on society and criminal justice being possibly difficult to predict. Once the science and/or technology has become entrenched and mainstream, it may be difficult to change. The enthusiasm portrayed by law enforcement and security agencies regarding emerging technologies, shows that it is important to remain somewhat cautious about the proliferation of these techniques. While such science and technologies appear to be effective and innovative in the present, it is difficult to accurately forecast or predict the future consequences of such innovations.

Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Security Journal
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd
Place of Publication: United Kingdom
ISSN: 1743-4645
0955-1662
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 319901 Forensic biology
440216 Technology, crime and surveillance
310599 Genetics not elsewhere classified
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 130301 Bioethics
220301 Digital humanities
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

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