A sociological study on people's understanding of forensic DNA analysis in Japan

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15H06106
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Sociology/History of science and technology
Research Institution	The University of Tokyo
Principal Investigator	Suzuki Mai 東京大学, 地震研究所, 特任研究員 (70761633)
Project Period (FY)	2015-08-28 – 2017-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2016)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,730,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥630,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Keywords	法科学 / DNA型鑑定 / 科学技術社会論 / 科学技術人類学 / 犯罪捜査 / 裁判 / 国際比較 / 科学的証拠 / 科学社会学 / 科学人類学 / 科学鑑定
Outline of Final Research Achievements	While forensic DNA analysis has played an important role in the criminal investigation and the decision-making in a court, it has been revealed that it is difficult for non-experts to understand forensic DNA analysis accurately and to utilize it effectively. This study has focused upon forensic DNA analysis in Japan and examined the following four, how various actors understand forensic DNA analysis differently; how people’s understanding of forensic DNA analysis has changed; what sort of problems have occurred relating to forensic DNA analysis; the characteristics of people’s understanding of forensic DNA analysis in Japan.