Between Pencils and Genetic Markers: On Forensic DNA Phenotyping and Facial Composite Drawing in Policing

• In Event: Technologies of Policing; Policing as Technology – III

Abstract

To engage the public in a criminal investigation and as such generate new leads, investigators may choose to circulate a facial composite image of an unknown suspect. In this paper we pause with the generation and distribution of such composite faces in policing. Comparing facial composite drawing to facial composites generated using DNA traces, we complicate the distinction between ‘low-tech’ and ‘high-tech’ forms of policing. We show that while there are clear differences between the two technologies, they work by a similar operational logic. Facial composite drawings are intentionally kept generic (contours are smudged, faces are preferably drawn in black-and-white) and often perceived as subjective and erroneous, while DNA ‘snapshots’ are presented as scientific and highly specific (facial characteristics are drawn out in great detail, faces are produced in full color). Yet in both technologies it is precisely the openness of the face that constitutes its virtue: through both the drawn and the ‘DNA-based’ faces the public is engaged in an investigation and as such enlisted in the work of policing. It is furthermore through this engagement that racializing effects may be produced. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the Dutch police, forensic genetic laboratories, and interviews with investigators and geneticists, we mobilize theories grounded in STS to demonstrate the differing (racializing) effects of technologically mediated faces in practice. In doing so, we furthermore add practical nuance to the STS scholarship on the face and race in forensic technologies.

Authors

• Roos Hopman, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam

• Ryanne Bleumink, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam