Ethical challenges of merging criminal identification and civil identification within the Prüm system.

The so-called Prüm system made mandatory for all EU Member States to join the pan-European network for the exchange of fingerprints, DNA profiles and motor vehicle information for stepping up on cross-border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime. Taking into consideration the number of DNA profiles archived in the national databases of the operational countries, more than 13 million DNA profiles can potentially be exchanged. Plans for "next-generation Prüm" that may soon be introduced aim to exchange additional forensic modalities, namely facial recognition data (FRD).

Ethics as Lived Practice. Anticipatory Capacity and Ethical Decision-Making in Forensic Genetics.

Greater scrutiny and demands for innovation and increased productivity place pressures on scientists. Forensic genetics is advancing at a rapid pace but can only do so responsibly, usefully, and acceptably within ethical and legal boundaries. We argue that such boundaries require that forensic scientists embrace 'ethics as lived practice'.

Forensic DNA phenotyping and its politics of legitimation and contestation: Views of forensic geneticists in Europe.

Forensic DNA Phenotyping (FDP) is a set of techniques that aim to infer externally visible characteristics in humans - such as eye, hair and skin color - and biogeographical ancestry of an unknown person, based on biological material. FDP has been applied in various jurisdictions in a limited number of high-profile cases to provide intelligence for criminal investigations. There are on-going controversies about the reliability and validity of FDP, which come together with debates about the ethical challenges emerging from the use of this technology in the criminal justice system.

Risks and benefits of transnational exchange of forensic DNA data in the EU: The views of professionals operating the Prüm system.

Under EU Law, Member States are compelled to engage in reciprocal automated forensic DNA profile exchange within the so-called Prüm system. Presently, 25 operational EU Member States exchange DNA data within the Prüm system to combat terrorism and cross-border crime. This article discusses the perceived risks and benefits of the Prüm system on the basis of a set of 37 interviews conducted in 22 EU countries, with 47 professionals operating the system (the National Contact Points - NCPs).

The Prüm Decisions as an Aspirational regime: Reviewing a Decade of Cross-Border Exchange and Comparison of Forensic DNA Data.

The automatic exchange and comparison of DNA data between national databases to combat terrorism and cross-border crime in the EU area has been facilitated by the 2008 Prüm Decisions. While it was anticipated that all EU Member States would have fulfilled the requirements by August 2011, this has not yet occurred. Once each Member State has implemented the Prüm Decisions, which is expected to occur by spring or summer 2019, the EU Commission is planning on submitting a legislative proposal to amend the Prüm Decisions, possibly broadening its scope both in terms of types of data exchanged and the number of countries involved.