criminal cases research papers

Estimating Gender Disparities in Federal Criminal Cases

University of Michigan Law and Economics Research Paper, No. 12-018

41 Pages Posted: 10 Sep 2012 Last revised: 27 Nov 2018

Sonja B. Starr

University of Chicago

Date Written: August 29, 2012

This paper assesses gender disparities in federal criminal cases. It finds large gender gaps favoring women throughout the sentence length distribution (averaging over 60%), conditional on arrest offense, criminal history, and other pre-charge observables. Female arrestees are also significantly likelier to avoid charges and convictions entirely, and twice as likely to avoid incarceration if convicted. Prior studies have reported much smaller sentence gaps because they have ignored the role of charging, plea-bargaining, and sentencing fact-finding in producing sentences. Most studies control for endogenous severity measures that result from these earlier discretionary processes and use samples that have been winnowed by them. I avoid these problems by using a linked dataset tracing cases from arrest through sentencing. Using decomposition methods, I show that most sentence disparity arises from decisions at the earlier stages, and use the rich data to investigate causal theories for these gender gaps.

Keywords: gender disparity, federal criminal cases, conviction rates, incarceration rates, sentencing, discretionary processes

JEL Classification: K14, K4

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Sonja B. Starr (Contact Author)

University of chicago ( email ).

1111 E 60th St Chicago, IL 60637 United States

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135+ Amazing Criminal Justice Research Topics In 2023

Are you a law student or enrolled in law college? Are you looking for criminal justice research topics? Here, in this blog, you can find your criminal justice research topics. Statanalytca.com explains the 135 amazing criminal research paper topic ideas for 2023 in this blog.

When we listen to the word criminal justice, many words come into our mind like “victim,” “enforcement,” “crimes,” “courts,” “prison,” and law sanctions. Criminal justice is a term that governments make to justice for people, reduce and make decisions to prevent crimes. Governments make law sanctions to reduce crimes. Every country has a different criminal justice system.

The criminal justice system in the United States is a complex system of federal, state, and local laws, with state and federal constitutions, international treaties, and customary law. Each layer of government shares responsibility for a different aspect of the process. Federal law enforcement agencies enforce laws that may be broken by people who are not in their jurisdiction.

For example : When an individual from New York City travels to Florida to commit a crime such as a robbery or murder they will be arrested by the Florida police and handed over to federal authorities.

A criminal justice research paper necessarily requires accuracy, attention, and patience. Sometimes students are confused about writing criminal research paper topics, or they have a shortage of time to complete research papers.

Most college students ask for assignments to write criminal justice research papers. If you want criminal justice research paper help, you can take our trusted  research paper assignment help .

How To Choose A Good Research Topics

Table of Contents

Choosing a research topic is a very challenging task. You should pick a topic that is both interesting and relevant to your audience. You should analyze the crime report before choosing the criminal justice research topics. Research the types of crimes in your country and where your country ranks in the global crime index.

Some research topics include the following:

• The role of law enforcement, prosecutors, and public defenders.
• Challenges with eyewitness identifications.
• Different types of evidence are used in criminal cases.
• The effect of jury selection on trials.
• How criminal justice impacts mental health.

What Is a Research Paper in Criminal Justice?

A research paper in criminal justice is an academic paper presenting findings from research on a specific criminal justice topic. These papers typically require extensive research and analysis of primary and secondary sources, such as case studies, official reports, statistics, and academic literature. The research paper aims to contribute new knowledge to the criminal justice field, identify trends or patterns, or assess the effectiveness of interventions or policies.

Research papers in criminal justice typically follow a standard academic format, including an introduction that sets the context and research questions, a literature review that summarizes existing research, a methodology section that outlines the research design and data collection methods, a results section that presents findings, and a conclusion that summarizes the research’s significance and implications.

Criminal justice research papers may focus on various topics, including the legal system’s operations, law enforcement practices, corrections, crime prevention, and victimization. These papers may be used to inform policymakers, practitioners, and academics about the state of the criminal justice system and suggest evidence-based solutions to improve its effectiveness and fairness.

Let’s Discuss The Criminal Justice Research Topics-

Here in this section, we will tell you some of the best criminal justice research topics for 2023:-

Basic Criminology and Criminal Justice Research Topics

• Basic criminal Research Topics.
• History of Criminal Ethics.
• Criminology as Social Science.
• Criminology and Public Policy.
• Advantages of Private Prisons.
• Civil Crimes vs War Crimes.
• Offenses Against Religion & Cultural Traits.
• Causes of victimization.

Court Cases Criminal Justice Research Topics

• Can victims of crime receive help?
• How serious are shoplifting incidents?
• When do felony disenfranchisement laws apply?
• Is organized crime and corruption synonymous?
• What is legal help available to victims of date rape?
• What is the difference between civil and criminal cases?
• Forensic science: how effective is it in modern criminal justice?
• Is there a link between substance abuse, crime, and substance use?
• Who is eligible for the protection program, and what protection is provided?
• Prison rape and violence: What can be done to prevent sexual and domestic violence in prison?

Controversial Criminal Justice Research Topics

• Gun control causes.
• Struggle with mental health issues.
• Police officers’ legal rights are limited.
• College Violence Causes.
• Gun violence and prevention policies.
• Crimes Propaganda and Modern Music Culture.
• Race and politics of criminal justice.
• An investigation into victim services.
• Eyewitness Evidence Importance.
• Legal codes used in America.
• Zero tolerance policy and crime rates.
• Sexual assault.
• culture, and gender equality.
• What is the best way to reduce recidivism?
• pros and cons of prisons in America.
• Criminalization of poverty.
• Gender and Punishment.
• The effects of drugs on children’s development.
• Effects of drug addiction on mental health.
• Youth offenders and Bootcamps.

Debate Criminal Justice Research Topics

• Failures in criminal justice.
• Criminal justice system expectations.
• Statistical analysis in criminal justice.
• Debate on criminal justice act.
• criminal justice trend evaluation.
• Trends in the criminal justice system.
• Criminal justice system corrections in the USA.
• Find the solution to prevent crimes.

Criminology Research Topics On Theories

• Is employment related to law violations?
• What is the relationship between family status and legal violations?
• Is gender related to the type of law violation?
• What is the relationship between citizenship and law enforcement?
• How does education relate to crime levels?
• How does gun ownership relate to breaking the law?
• Is there a link between immigration status and law violations?
• What types of crimes are common at what ages?
• How does the type of crime relate to the level of aggression?

Top 10 Hot Criminology Research Topics

• Crime is explained culturally.
• The media’s role in criminology.
• The advantages of convict criminology.
• The major issues in postmodern criminology.
• Is politics influencing criminal behavior?
• How does DAWN collect information?
• The shortcomings of crime mapping.
• Crime rates and community deterioration.
• Certain personality traits trigger criminal behavior.
• Does experimental criminology have an impact on social policy?

Criminal Justice Research Topics Based On Crime and Communities

• The impact of community policing on crime prevention in urban areas.
• The effectiveness of restorative justice programs in reducing recidivism rates.
• The relationship between poverty and crime in urban communities.
• The role of race and ethnicity in criminal justice outcomes and disparities.
• The effectiveness of community-based interventions in reducing juvenile delinquency.
• The impact of gun laws on violent crime in urban communities.
• Social media’s role in spreading crime and its effects on communities.
• The effectiveness of drug courts in reducing drug-related crimes and improving public safety.
• The relationship between mental illness and criminal behavior in urban communities.
• The impact of immigration policies on crime and public safety in urban areas.
• The effectiveness of re-entry programs for ex-offenders in reducing recidivism and promoting successful reintegration into society.
• The impact of community-based victim services on the criminal justice system and crime prevention.
• The relationship between neighborhood social disorganization and crime rates.
• The role of technology in improving crime prevention and solving crimes in urban communities.
• The effectiveness of community-based diversion programs for non-violent offenders.
• The impact of neighborhood watch programs on crime prevention and community safety.
• The role of community involvement in addressing hate crimes and bias incidents.
• The impact of domestic violence on communities and the criminal justice response.
• The effectiveness of drug treatment programs in reducing drug-related crime and improving public health.
• The criminal justice system’s impact on marginalized communities and efforts to promote equity and justice.

Criminal Justice Research Topics On Racism and Discrimination

• Eliminating discrimination in the criminal justice system.
• Gender Bias in Eyewitnesses.
• African American Legislative Apartheid.
• Racial Discrimination in College Campuses.
• How criminal justice law is enacted on Migrants.
• Inequality in the criminal justice system Research.

General Criminal Justice Research Topics

• Police brutality and excessive force
• Criminal profiling and investigation techniques
• Restorative justice programs
• Cybercrime and cyberterrorism
• Gun control policies and their effectiveness
• The impact of race and ethnicity on sentencing
• Juvenile delinquency prevention and intervention
• Wrongful convictions and the death penalty
• Gender and crime
• Drug policy and its impact on crime.
• Community policing and trust-building strategies
• The effectiveness of rehabilitation and reentry programs for offenders
• Domestic violence and its impact on victims
• Crime prevention through environmental design
• Forensic science and the reliability of evidence in criminal investigations
• Corruption in law enforcement and the criminal justice system
• Mental health treatment for inmates and offenders
• Human trafficking and modern-day slavery
• The use of technology in criminal investigations and surveillance
• The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the criminal justice system.

Types of Criminal Justice Research Topics  

• Homicide, serial murders, and serial murder are the most popular topics in murder studies.
• A case study of robbery crime, unusual daylight robbery in a news article.
• Identity Theft and Ways to Protect, the prevalence of identity theft in the community, causes, and effects of cell phone theft.
• Analysis and critique of Current fraud cases, Fraud and business ethics, fraud schemes, and investigation.

International Criminal Law Topics

• Criminal ethics, criminal law research assignment paper.
• Criminal courtroom observation reaction.
• Childhood obesity.
• Crime Prevention.
• International crimes and their laws.
• International criminal court.
• Human Rights and Inequality.
• Rape Cases.

Criminal Justice Research Topics For College Students

• The Impact of Police Body Cameras on Law Enforcement Accountability
• Violent Crime Reduction Effectiveness of Restorative Justice Programs
• Racial Disparities in Sentencing and Their Implications for Justice
• The Role of Mental Health Services in Diverting Offenders from the Criminal Justice System
• Media Effects on Perceptions of Crime and Criminal Conduct
• Examining the Use of Technology in Solving Crimes and Enhancing Investigations
• Juvenile Justice Policies: Rehabilitation vs. Punishment
• The Intersection of Immigration Policies and Criminal Justice Outcomes
• Criminal Profiling and its Reliability in Solving Crimes
• The Effect of Minimum Sentence Laws on Incarceration Rates and Public Safety.

Criminology Research Topics

• Armed Crime Groups History Motives.
• Cyber Criminology Correction Methods.
• Art Fraud Cooperation.
• Drunk Driving Prevention Ads.
• Identity Theft & Social Media.
• Topic on Child Abuse & TV Violence.
• Aggression Against Homeless People.
• Unemployment & Street Situation Analysis.
• Forensic Research Identification Methods.
• Crime Witnesses PTSD Rehabilitation.

Career With The Criminology Major

There are a variety of jobs you can get with a criminology degree. We sort listed the top 8 trending jobs that you can get with a criminology degree:

• Criminologist.
• Private investigator 
• Forensic scientist .
• Correction officer.
• Jury consultant.
• Loss prevention specialist 
• Clinical social worker.

Tips On How To Write Criminal Justice Research Topics

A step-by-step guide on how to write criminal justice research topics:

• Choose a particular topic.
• Read the given materials and take some notes.
• Come up with a thesis.
• Create an outline for your project.
• Write down all the information that you have collected.
• Start with a cover page, and an intro.
• List the technique you used and the results you got.
• Include a discussion.
• Always write a conclusion.
• Don’t forget to correct your grammar mistakes.
• Revise, proofread, and if it is incorrect then edit.

Importance of Criminal Justice Research Papers In 2023

Here are some important of criminal justice research papers in 2023: 

1. Informed Policy-Making

Criminal justice research papers provide valuable data and insights that policymakers use to develop effective laws and policies, enhancing the fairness and efficiency of the justice system.

2. Evidence-Based Practices

Research papers help identify evidence-based strategies for law enforcement, corrections, and crime prevention, leading to better outcomes and reduced rates of reoffending.

3. Transparency and Accountability

By revealing systemic issues and gaps, research papers push for greater transparency and accountability within the criminal justice system, fostering public trust.

4. Improved Decision-Making

Policymakers, law enforcement, and other stakeholders use research findings to make informed decisions on resource allocation and allocation of efforts.

5. Advancing Knowledge

Criminal justice research papers contribute to the body of knowledge in the field, allowing researchers and academics to build on existing findings and develop innovative approaches to understanding crime and justice.

6. Addressing Disparities

Research papers shed light on disparities in the justice system, such as racial or socioeconomic disparities, prompting efforts to address and rectify these inequalities.

7. Enhancing Public Awareness

Research papers raise public awareness about issues like wrongful convictions, mental health challenges, and the impact of crime on communities, spurring advocacy and societal change.

Get More Criminal Justice Research Topics At Statanalytica.com

Hope you choose criminal justice research topics for this blog. If you have any difficulty choosing criminal justice research topics, you can contact us at any time. Our professional writers are available to suggest criminal justice research topics ideas and research paper help.

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So, you can contact us for any type of paper writing service and impress your teacher or professor by choosing a good criminal justice research topic.

This is the end of this post about criminal justice research topics. However, diverse criminal justice research topics offer unique insights into various aspects of the criminal justice system. These research areas are crucial for policymakers, practitioners, and academics to comprehensively understand the system’s challenges and develop effective interventions that improve its fairness and effectiveness. 

On the other hand, we mentioned more than 135 criminal justice research topics based on different categories. So that it is easier for you to choose the best criminal justice research topics.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1.what are some criminal justice research topics.

Research Topics in Criminal Justice System: 1. Capital Punishment. 2. Community Corrections. 3. Crime Prevention. 4. Criminal Courts. 5. Criminal Justice Ethics. 6. Criminal Law. 7. Criminal Specialisation. 8. Drug Courts.

Q2. How do I choose a research topic?

Two main ways to find a research topic: through your academic interests or by self-initiation. You can find a topic through your academic focus, talk to your professors and classmates about what they’re working on, and they can point you in the right direction and introduce you to the process of conducting research. The other option is to start with The idea that interests you.

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The staggering death toll of scientific lies

Scientific fraud kills people. Should it be illegal?

by Kelsey Piper

You probably haven’t heard of cardiologist Don Poldermans, but experts who study scientific misconduct believe that thousands of people may be dead because of him.

Poldermans was a prolific medical researcher at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, where he analyzed the standards of care for cardiac surgery, publishing a series of definitive studies from 1999 until the early 2010s.

One crucial question he studied: Should you give patients a beta blocker, which lowers blood pressure, before certain heart surgeries? Poldermans’s research said yes. European medical guidelines (and to a lesser extent US guidelines) recommended it accordingly .

The problem? Poldermans’s data was reportedly fake . A 2012 inquiry by Erasmus Medical School, his employer, into allegations of misconduct found that he “used patient data without written permission, used fictitious data and… submitted to conferences [reports] which included knowingly unreliable data.” Poldermans admitted the allegations and apologized , while stressing that the use of fictitious data was accidental.

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After the revelations, a new meta-analysis was published in 2014, evaluating whether to use beta blockers before cardiac surgery. It found that a course of beta blockers made it 27 percent more likely that someone would die within 30 days of their heart surgery. That is, the policy which Poldermans had recommended using falsified data, adopted in Europe on the basis of his research, was actually dramatically increasing the odds people would die in heart surgery.

Tens of millions of heart surgeries were conducted across the US and Europe during the years from 2009 to 2013 when those misguided guidelines were in place. One provocative analysis from cardiologists Graham Cole and Darrel Francis estimated that there were 800,000 deaths compared to if the best practices had been established five years sooner. While that exact number is hotly contested, a 27 percent increase in mortality for a common procedure for years on end can add up to an extraordinary death toll.

I learned about the Poldermans case when I reached out to some scientific misconduct researchers, asking them a provocative question: Should scientific fraud be prosecuted?

Unfortunately, fraud and misconduct in the scientific community isn’t nearly as rare as one might like to believe. We also know that the consequences of being caught are frequently underwhelming. It can take years to get a bad paper retracted, even if the flaws are readily apparent. Sometimes, scientists alleged to have falsified their data file frivolous lawsuits against their peers who point it out, further silencing anyone who would speak out about bad data. And we know that this behavior can have high stakes, and can dramatically affect treatment options for patients .

In cases where research dishonesty is literally killing people, shouldn’t it be appropriate to resort to the criminal justice system?

The question of whether research fraud should be a crime

In some cases, research misconduct may be hard to distinguish from carelessness.

If a researcher fails to apply the appropriate statistical correction for multiple hypothesis testing, they will probably get some spurious results. In some cases, researchers are heavily incentivized to be careless in these ways by an academic culture that puts non-null results above all else (that is, rewarding researchers for finding an effect even if it is not a methodologically sound one, while being unwilling to publish sound research if it finds no effect).

But I’d argue it’s a bad idea to prosecute such behavior. It would produce a serious chilling effect on research, and likely make the scientific process slower and more legalistic — which also results in more deaths that could be avoided if science moved more freely.

So the conversation about whether to criminalize research fraud tends to focus on the most clear-cut cases: intentional falsification of data. Elisabeth Bik, a scientific researcher who studies fraud, made a name for herself by demonstrating that photographs of test results in many medical journals were clearly altered . That’s not the kind of thing that can be an innocent mistake, so it represents something of a baseline for how often manipulated data is published.

While technically some scientific fraud could fall under existing statutes that prohibit lying on, say, a grant application, in practice scientific fraud is more or less never prosecuted. Poldermans eventually lost his job in 2011, but most of his papers weren’t even retracted, and he faced no further consequences.

But in response to growing awareness of fraud’s frequency and its harms, some scientists and scientific-fraud watchdogs have proposed changing that . A new statute, narrowly tailored to scientific fakery, could make it clearer where to draw the line between carelessness and fraud.

The question is whether legal consequences would actually help with our fraud problem. I asked Bik what she thought about proposals to criminalize the misconduct that she studied.

Her reaction was that, while it’s not clear whether criminalization is the right approach, people should understand that currently there are almost no consequences for wrongdoers. “It’s maddening when you see people cheat,” she told me, “And even if it involves grant money from the NIH, there’s very little punishment. Even with people who have been caught cheating, the punishment is super light. You are not eligible to apply for new grants for the next year or sometimes three years. It’s very rare that people lose jobs over it.”

Why is that? Fundamentally, it’s a problem of incentives. It is embarrassing for institutions when one of their researchers commits misconduct, so they’d rather impose a mild penalty and not keep digging. There’s little incentive for anyone to get to the bottom of misconduct. “If the most serious consequence for speeding was a police officer saying ‘Don’t do that again,’ everyone would be speeding,” Bik told me. “This is the situation we have in science. Do whatever you want. If you get caught, it’ll take years to investigate.”

In some ways, a legal statute isn’t the ideal solution. Courts are also guilty of taking years to deliver justice in complex cases. They also aren’t well suited to answering detailed scientific questions, and would almost certainly be relying on scientific institutions that conduct investigations — so what really matters is those institutions, not whether they’re attached to a court, a nonprofit, or to the NIH.

But in sufficiently severe cases of misconduct, it does seem to me that it’d be a major advantage to have an institution outside academia at work on getting to the bottom of these cases. If well designed, a statute that allowed prosecution for scientific fraud could shift the overwhelming incentives to let misconduct go unpunished and move on.

If there were ongoing investigations conducted by an outside agency (like a prosecutor), it would no longer be easiest for institutions to maintain their reputation by sweeping incidents of fraud under the rug. But the outside agency would not actually have to be a prosecutor; an independent scientific review board would probably also suffice, Bik said.

Ultimately, prosecution is a blunt tool. It might help provide accountability in cases where no one is incentivized to provide it — and I do think in cases of misconduct that lead to thousands of deaths, it would be a matter of justice. But it’s neither the only way to solve our fraud problem nor necessarily the best one.

So far, however, efforts to build institutions within the scientific community that police misconduct have had only limited success. At this point, I’d consider it a positive if there were efforts to allow external institutions to police misconduct as well.

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How the technology that solved the 4 Idaho killings could solve many more crimes

The breakthrough forensic science known as genetic genealogy is back in the news in the case of the “Idaho Four” home invasion slayings, highlighting yet again what a game-changer this latest crimefighting tool is.

Or, rather, could be.

The brutal stabbing of four University of Idaho students on Nov. 13 as they slept in their Moscow, Idaho, home terrorized a normally peaceful campus and community. Detectives found clues but nothing definitive. Traces of DNA on a knife sheath left at the scene matched no one in the FBI’s massive DNA database of past offenders. As the investigation dragged on, students and residents stopped going out at night, fearing the killer might strike again.

Then investigators turned to genetic genealogy, the ingenious forensic tool that relies on the home DNA tests used by millions of Americans to explore their roots. It leverages that data to identify violent criminals who can’t be found in police files or databases.

In short order, detectives had a suspect in handcuffs: Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology graduate student at Washington State University in Pullman, just across the state line from Moscow. Four grieving families had answers and a community could breathe again, all because of this unique combination of cutting-edge science and old-school family tree research called genetic genealogy.

If that seems almost magical, you’re not wrong. Genetic genealogy entered the limelight nearly five years ago as the key to arresting California’s Golden State Killer. At the same time, a cold case detective in Snohomish County, Washington, used it to solve the 1987 murder of a young couple on a road trip from Canada to Seattle, leading to the world’s first genetic genealogy criminal trial (the subject of my new book, “The Forever Witness”).

Killers who had eluded justice for decades were landing in jail because of this new forensics tool that appeared out of the blue, ending enduring mysteries in a matter of weeks – or less. In the Snohomish County murders of 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Jay Cook, it took a mere two hours to identify a killer who roamed free for 31 years. Seattle truck driver William Earl Talbott II is now serving two life sentences for the crimes.

These cases showed genetic genealogy as arguably the biggest crime-solving breakthrough since the fingerprint, yet even more powerful, because it goes beyond merely matching crime scene to criminal. It’s also a search tool, the Google of crime.

When these cases broke in 2018 and others followed, it seemed we were entering a new age of crime-solving miracles. This latest triumph in the Idaho Four case seems to confirm the revolution is well underway.

Except … it’s not. The Idaho Four case really proves the opposite, an example of rarity rather than revolution.

Instead of genetic genealogy becoming what it should be after five years – a staple of everyday police work – genetic genealogy remains a novelty deployed in only a handful of “high-profile” investigations. Meanwhile, thousands of “ordinary” murders, rapes and other unsolved violent crimes languish.

The consequences of this failure to launch are stark. Between 500 and 1,000 cases of violent crimes and unidentified human remains have been solved in the last five years through genetic genealogy – averaging at most 200 a year. But there were nearly 60,000 unsolved violent crimes just last year that, like the Idaho Four, came up empty in the FBI’s DNA database, and would have been suitable for genetic genealogy.

It’s hardly a revolution if only 200 out of 60,000 crime victims benefit. Instead, we have two-tier justice, with the latest and greatest going to a select few, while most victims and families continue to wait for answers. Meanwhile, criminals run free, the dead stay unidentified and the innocent remain under needless suspicion when genetic genealogy could rule them out in a heartbeat.

“We expected to be so much further along by now,” says pioneering genetic genealogist CeCe Moore, who solved the Snohomish County case and more than 200 others, making her the leader in the field. It’s a title she would happily relinquish if genetic genealogy truly took off. “We could be doing so much more.”

So why does the vast promise of genetic genealogy remain unfulfilled?

The short answer: money. The feds and the states have dropped the ball. They have provided none of the funding, legislation, transparency, oversight or training that have been a given to lift earlier forensic breakthroughs from obscurity to ubiquity. So most crime labs can’t do it. Most cops don’t understand it. Genetic genealogy is not part of their standard operating procedures.

This is shameful, but not hard to see why: It’s all about origins, turf and pride.

Genetic genealogy came not from forensic experts, crime labs and law enforcement, but from hobbyists researching family trees. More than 40 million Americans have bought inexpensive DNA tests online, spit in a tube and sent those kits to 23andMe, Ancestry or other consumer DNA companies. All the while, they were doing genetic genealogy without knowing it, crowdsourcing family trees by sharing DNA profiles in big databases.

Then pioneers such as Moore realized this could be a powerful tool for other things: to help adoptees find birth families, or amnesiacs learn their identities – or to find the distant relatives of killers, then build out their family trees until the culprit’s name was revealed.

The forensics community scoffed when Moore first suggested this “investigative genetic genealogy,” and even after Golden State and Snohomish County, these experts were slow to accept that citizen scientists with their $69 DNA tests bought on Amazon could do things the best crime labs in the world could not.

But it’s time they got over themselves, and it’s time Congress, the Justice Department and the states put up the dollars needed to turn a novelty into the daily business of police work. Funding is needed to ramp up two big moves: training local police nationwide and equipping the hundreds of public crime labs to process DNA for genetic genealogy. Right now, about a half-dozen private labs are handling this for the whole country, a very expansive bottleneck.

“There’s no question in my mind that this technology should be the law enforcement standard,” says Anne Marie Schubert, the former Sacramento County District Attorney who presided over the Golden State Killer case, now working at DNA forensics company Verogen. “This is the greatest tool since the fingerprint.”

Tens of thousands more murders, rapes and other violent crimes will continue to go unsolved each year if this “novelty” doesn’t become an everyday reality. Let’s honor the Idaho Four by making sure that every other case counts, too.

Edward Humes is the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of “The Forever Witness: How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder.”

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