To give authorities additional tools in fighting against the ongoing wave of violence against women, Mexico City officials presented on Tuesday the first DNA bank in the country. It will serve as a database of genetic information of perpetrators involved in sex crimes.

Despite completing the created database, some pending certifications have yet to be completed before it can fully operate. The facility is expected to be up and running sometime in August, based on the authorities' assessment.

According to La Prensa Latina, several public officials attended the event where the completion of the database tool and facility was announced. Among them was capital Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who said the DNA bank is one more in a series of tools that the government designed in eradicating violence against women.

Science Against Crime

In addition, during a press conference, Mexico City Attorney General Ernestina Godoy emphasized that the DNA bank will be the first of its kind in Mexico. She also pointed out that each day, more than ten women are murdered in the country. This means that it will be a basic tool in the investigation of violence against women.

Moreover, the target of said database, which has been developed since 2019, is to collect genetic profiles of individuals implicated in, brought to court for trial, and those convicted criminals with femicide, rape, or statutory rape, or those individuals who had many cases that have re-offended, as mentioned on a ScienceDirect journal.

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Furthermore, the facility will also have the profiles of police officers and public officials who are handling or linked with cases, security issues, security guards, and even the head of state. The profiling will be based on the genetic profile of an individual, which is a set of short DNA fragments arranged by size. It also contains the characteristics of the individual involved.

Also, the profile will be easily converted into a simple numeric code that can also be easily stored and compared to others with high accuracy. It will also help determine the type of crime a person might commit or whether the person was the perpetrator or not.

The project was launched in accord with the December 24, 2019 law that directs on establishing a DNA bank that aims to help Forensic Use. However, since then, the inauguration of the housing facility had been delayed several times.

The certification of the facility is the responsibility of the ICITAP criminal investigation training program, alongside the Mexican Accreditation Agency, Riot Times reported.

Authorities also presented a special report, which specifically contains the number of violence against women incidents in the capital of Mexico. According to the report, in March 2021, the number of femicides almost doubled compared to the same month last year. It jumped from seven murders to 13.

In those reported killings last month, authorities had already issued six arrest warrants and made four arrests.

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