SPECIAL REPORT:
Ending rape kit wait puts price on justice
Untested rape kits contain semen, hairs, blood or other biological material left behind by a rapist. But in hundreds of thousands of instances, this DNA evidence is never analyzed by a forensic lab and remains in police basements and coroner's backrooms. The reason for this inaction is money. Lab analysis of the kits, which are gathered in emergency rooms soon after victims report a rape, can cost $1,000. An estimated 350,000 kits await testing around the country.
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DNA 50TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL:
On Feb. 28, 1953, two scientists announced they had discovered the blueprint for all life: the double helix structure of DNA. Among the many revolutions it sparked, this discovery by James Watson and Francis Crick forever changed the way crimes are solved and prosecuted. Courttv.com takes a closer look at how DNA analysis works, what it can do, and what it means for individual privacy.
 INTERACTIVE: DNA, From crime to conviction
Who stole the Hopeful Diamond? In this interactive feature, follow along as police match blood found at the scene of the heist with that of a known cat burglar, and see exactly how DNA matching works.
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 Cold hits v. civil liberties
As law enforcement touts mounting DNA database success stories, an ongoing trend toward including more offenders — and some non-offenders —in the computer databases has some worried about privacy.
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 DNA and the death of a punk icon
The murder of rising punk-rock star Mia Zapata remained unsolved for nine years despite a case file that detectives described as "voluminous." Then: a DNA match.
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SPECIAL REPORTS:
Missing Faces: Age-progression and facial recognition
Forensic artists use computers and basic art supplies to age photos of the missing and breathe some life into the unidentified dead.
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Defeating Deceit: Computer voice stress analyzers
While some police may taut this controversial tool as the greatest thing since handcuffs, others call it junk science.
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Mapping Murders: Geographic profiling
In the hunt for the Washington-area snipers, investigators turned to a high-tech tool in hopes of finding the shooters' home base.
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Science of Lies: The polygraph and beyond
With polygraphs under fire for inaccuracy, new high-tech methods like "brain fingerprinting" may catch on quickly.
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eSpying: Tracking keystrokes
Powerful software lets investigators pick a computer's brain but using it the wrong way can lead to trouble.
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