Colombian forensic genetics as a form of public science: The role of race, nation and common sense in the stabilization of DNA populations

Schwartz-Marín, E.; Wade, P.; Cruz-Santiago, A.; Cárdenas, R.

doi:10.1177/0306312715574158

Colombian forensic genetics as a form of public science: The role of race, nation and common sense in the stabilization of DNA populations

Schwartz-Marín, E.; Wade, P.; Cruz-Santiago, A.; Cárdenas, R.

Authors

E. Schwartz-Marín

P. Wade

A. Cruz-Santiago

R. Cárdenas

Abstract

This article examines the role that vernacular notions of racialized-regional difference play in the constitution and stabilization of DNA populations in Colombian forensic science, in what we frame as a process of public science. In public science, the imaginations of the scientific world and common-sense public knowledge are integral to the production and circulation of science itself. We explore the origins and circulation of a scientific object – ‘La Tabla’, published in Paredes et al. and used in genetic forensic identification procedures – among genetic research institutes, forensic genetics laboratories and courtrooms in Bogotá. We unveil the double life of this central object of forensic genetics. On the one hand, La Tabla enjoys an indisputable public place in the processing of forensic genetic evidence in Colombia (paternity cases, identification of bodies, etc.). On the other hand, the relations it establishes between ‘race’, geography and genetics are questioned among population geneticists in Colombia. Although forensic technicians are aware of the disputes among population geneticists, they use and endorse the relations established between genetics, ‘race’ and geography because these fit with common-sense notions of visible bodily difference and the regionalization of race in the Colombian nation.

Citation

Schwartz-Marín, E., Wade, P., Cruz-Santiago, A., & Cárdenas, R. (2015). Colombian forensic genetics as a form of public science: The role of race, nation and common sense in the stabilization of DNA populations. Social Studies of Science, 45(6), 862-885. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312715574158

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Mar 30, 2015
Publication Date	Dec 1, 2015
Deposit Date	Dec 3, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Dec 4, 2015
Journal	Social Studies of Science
Print ISSN	0306-3127
Electronic ISSN	1460-3659
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	45
Issue	6
Pages	862-885
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312715574158
Keywords	Colombia, Common sense, Forensic genetics, Nation, Racialization.

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Advance online version This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm).