Impact of allelic dropout on evidential value of forensic DNA profiles using RMNE

Bioinformatics. 2009 Jan 15;25(2):225-9. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btn608. Epub 2008 Nov 23.

Abstract

Motivation: Two methods are commonly used to report on evidence carried by forensic DNA profiles: the 'Random Man Not Excluded' (RMNE) approach and the likelihood ratio (LR) approach. It is often claimed a major advantage of the LR method that dropout can be assessed probabilistically.

Results: In this article, a new RMNE measure is proposed that like-wise accounts for allelic dropout in an observed forensic DNA profile. We discuss the necessary calculations, underline their simplicity and provide a tool for performing the calculations.

MeSH terms

  • Alleles*
  • DNA / chemistry
  • DNA Fingerprinting / methods*
  • Forensic Medicine / methods
  • Likelihood Functions

Substances

  • DNA