Publications

What's new

Survey of DNA Crime Laboratories, 1998

Reports findings from a survey of publicly operated forensic crime labs that perform Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) testing. The survey included questions about each lab's budget, personnel, workloads, and operating policies procedures. Data were obtained from 108 out of a 120 estimated known labs -- including all statewide labs. As part of their DNA Laboratory Improvement Program, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded the survey to help identify workload and technology issues.

Highlights include the following:

• At the end of 1997, 69% of DNA labs had a backlog of 6,800 known and unknown subject cases and 287,000 convicted offender samples.
• To alleviate case backlogs 44% of the labs had hired additional staff, 34% were using overtime, 13% were contracting with private labs, and 28% were using other methods.
• The number of full-time staff in DNA labs ranged from 1 to 47, with a median staff size of 5. Three quarters of labs had fewer than 10 full-time staff.

2/00. NCJ 179104

This report is one in a series. More recent editions may be available. To view a list of all in the series go to the publications page.

Press release (3K) | Acrobat file (76K) | ASCII file (25K)
Spreadsheets (zip format) (19K)
About the source data | Codebooks & data sets
To order paper version

Help for using BJS products