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Well as we all know twins have identical DNA. They use DNA to find evidence. If a twin commits a crime and they test the DNA will they find two perpetrators? How would they go about differentiation of the two?
| Finger prints | 31 | |
| Circumstances | 9 | |
| Alluby | 3 | |
| I have another guess | 0 | |
| I will comment | 2 |
"You simply chop them in half and send half of each to jail. Of course, I haven't the slightest interest in such affairs"
- Tommy the cat, MD.
Fingerprints and alibi first, then anything unique such as clothing, tattoos, scars, hair coloring or style, provided there is a witness or physical evidence that can identify such things as being specific to one twin and not the other. Disease or drugs present in body fluids, hair or tissue collected may also prove innocence or guilt.
Most interestingly though, they are able to find mutations in DNA that make even a twin unique, however this testing is by no means practical yet.
So it is too exspensive? Is that what you are telling me? Well yes that sounds like a challange. However they always find a way to mass produce things. I am sure they will find an affordable way soon. Unlike the now suffering meat market.
The study of mutations isn't prompted by law enforcement, there's not enough need to research it for that purpose as it's such a rarity that it would be used for that. It's just one of those studies to hopefully understand it-twins, genetics, etc, and if it happens to become a viable tool for law enforcement, that's a bonus. There's just not enough twin conspiracy crime that can't be solved by the old detective stand-bys. It would have to be one HELL of a well conspired crime, and a serious enough crime to even think to go to this study to determine a suspect.
From what I understand, as of now it's just studying twins in general, if it happens to be made practical then certainly law enforcement would use it if the need arises. Just like regular DNA testing, I'm sure it will advance!!
Yes, it's expensive, and more so than expensive but such an exhausting study. If you're looking at 100-200 mutations in billions of strands of DNA, it's just pardon the expression-you're looking for a needle in a haystack. PLUS, comparing it to the known DNA. It's no easy undertaking.
Depending on where the DNA came form (tissue.blood,etc) mutations will not compare as if you were comparing 2 of the same tissue or fluid samples.
It has a long way to go.
My sister used to work for the government agency which gets absent fathers to pay child support for their children. She didn't deal with monozygotic twins but her branch once had to. Naturally, it was the subject of quite a lot of gossip in the office and everybody knew about the case.
The crux of it was that a paternity test was useless because the twins had identical DNA. There was no genetic way of proving fatherhood. When it was decided that genetic evidence was inadmissible, the agency was deemed responsible for proving fatherhood some other way. A year later, when my sister left, fatherhood still hadn't been proven and neither man had paid a penny in maintenance.
Personally, I'd have charged each twin half the maintenance and told them that whichever one was the father was responsible for reimbursing his twin each month. The law doesn't work like that, though.
Haha, I remember this episode of Law and Order.
Personally, I know that DNA evidence usually isn't the only evidence used to prove that someone was at a crime scene. Clothing, security cameras, witnesses, alibis...
However, I will admit, that if the twins are truly determined to pull the cute little switcheroo, than the court will have to make the best case possible and lock up whoever was more likely to have been there.
I once read an article about this. In order to convict, the must prove beyond reasonable doubt. And in my experience with DNA testing, the quality of the result really depends on the type of sample you use. If both deny the crime, then it would be very difficult, almost impossible to prove who did it. It's a loophole that twins have the opportunity to make use of.
Well actually twins do not have exactly the same DNA which is proven by science!
I came up with a story about this. I also wonder if a woman had sex with twins and got pregnant, how does she determine the father.