FiTeGe

While the vast majority of social science studies in the field of genetics relate to biomedicine, our project offers a different approach as it concerns the police and legal sphere. In a context of the increasing technicisation of police investigations, the emergence of genetic analyses has substantially changed practices. More generally, new professional tools are being developed, which evolve, give rise to new moral and political controversies, and circulate between different national and international professional spaces (scientific, legal, political, industrial, etc.). Our project lies at the intersection of sociology, anthropology and law, but also, more peripherally, forensics, and will not analyse these stakes separately from the content and concrete forms of these innovations. More specifically, it aims to trace the genealogy of these innovations and analyse the practices they shape (and that shape them) as well as the controversies to which they give rise. While the question of the regime of evidence is central and will provide our common theme, it will also be examined from a variety of angles: what types of knowledge led to the development of these innovations? What is their supposed nature and what role do they play in defining categories of identification (suspect, potential suspect, person of a certain “origin”, etc.)? How do they influence how individuals and populations are governed? How do they come to circulate within the European Union? The project calls upon four research centres with complementary areas of expertise and is composed of three scientific tasks, in addition to a task devoted to coordination and technology transfer. The first scientific task will look at the genealogy of DNA fingerprinting in France; the second will analyse new forms of knowledge in genetics and forensics, and the related social effects; the third will focus on the practices and stakes of the circulation of genetic data between France and the other European countries. Sociologists, anthropologists, legal specialists, and, more occasionally, a forensic scientist, will work collaboratively within each task. On a methodological level, we will conduct a series of interviews with judges, police officers, political officials, geneticists, victim support organisations, opponents to the database, etc. as well as observations of trials calling upon genetics expertise. We will collect and analyse several corpora composed of documents from the mainstream press, scientific articles in forensics, legal and regulatory texts, and records of parliamentary commission debates. All in all, our project will develop: 1. An innovative nature: this field of research in the social sciences has never been studied in France. 2. An interdisciplinary approach: it lies at the intersection between sociology and anthropology, law and forensics. 3. International visibility: publications will be written for international journals and an international conference will be organised. 4. Technology transfer: our results will be disseminated among relevant actors (judges, lawyers, geneticists, etc.) through a Workshop, a training seminar aimed at judges and a lecture for the general public. Legal recommendations will be drawn up for public authorities. 5. Inclusion in teaching: participants who run seminars in the field of innovations and genetics, law and forensics will include their research in their teaching.