Colombian forensic genetics as a form of public science: The role of race, nation and common sense in the stabilization of DNA populations

Abstract

This article examines the role that vernacular notions of racialized-regional difference play in the constitution and stabilization of DNA populations in Colombian forensic science, in what we frame as a process of public science. In public science, the imaginations of the scientific world and common-sense public knowledge are integral to the production and circulation of science itself. We explore the origins and circulation of a scientific object – ‘La Tabla’, published in Paredes et al. and used in genetic forensic identification procedures – among genetic research institutes, forensic genetics laboratories and courtrooms in Bogotá. We unveil the double life of this central object of forensic genetics. On the one hand, La Tabla enjoys an indisputable public place in the processing of forensic genetic evidence in Colombia (paternity cases, identification of bodies, etc.). On the other hand, the relations it establishes between ‘race’, geography and genetics are questioned among population geneticists in Colombia. Although forensic technicians are aware of the disputes among population geneticists, they use and endorse the relations established between genetics, ‘race’ and geography because these fit with common-sense notions of visible bodily difference and the regionalization of race in the Colombian nation.

The Face of the Mexican: Race, Nation, and Criminal Identification in Mexico

“…Rather, the regionally expected phenotypic variation uncovered by Caramex resembles what has been argued to be commonsense ideas of a racial regionalization that affect and inform identification tools and procedures in forensic genetics in other Latin American countries, such as Colombia (Schwartz‐Marín et al. 2015; Wade 2017). However, in contrast to racial regionalization in Colombia, the regionalization in Mexico is perceived in terms of shades of mestizos rather than in terms of distinct races.…”

“…This literature has primarily focused on analyses of forensic DNA and associated public debates (García‐Deister and López‐Beltrán 2015; Schwartz‐Marín et al. 2015; Smith 2016). The present text contributes to this discussion by looking more closely at an unexplored technology: composite sketches.…”

Nation-Building and the Governance of Emerging Technologies: the Case of Nanotechnology in India

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Genomic research, publics and experts in Latin America: Nation, race and body

“…Colombia is an interesting case because there has been less public debate involving genetic data, although genetic scientists have been active in producing knowledge about the country’s diversity and ancestry and some have also published popular books and/or been the subject of press coverage about their research ( Barragán Duarte, 2007 ; Fog, 2006 ; Yunis Turbay, 2009 ). The article in this issue by Schwartz-Marín, Wade, Cruz-Santiago and Cárdenas shows how a specific genetic description of regional populations in the country became a standardized reference tool for establishing likelihood ratios in DNA matching, which was used by the state’s family welfare institute for paternity testing and by the state’s forensic science institute for identifying dead bodies and suspects ( Schwartz-Marín et al, 2015 ). The forensic technicians who use this tool in everyday practice represent a specialized kind of ‘public’, and as with studies of the impact of genomics that focus on patient groups or specific legal cases, this needs to be borne in mind when assessing overall processes of geneticization, transformation and reconfiguration.…”