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Investigation of Paternity With Alleged Father Deceased or Missing: Analysis of Success at the End of the Report

NCJ Number
248149
Journal
Forensic Science International Genetics Volume: 12 Dated: September 2014 Pages: 120-121
Author(s)
Suelen P. Basgalupp; Rodrigo Rodenbusch; Simone Schumacher; André Z. Gastaldo; Deborah S. Silva; Clarice S. Alho
Date Published
September 2014
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This is a retrospective study of 858 cases of paternity investigations performed in Rio Grande doSol, Southern Brazil, from 2002 to 2012, which involved alleged fathers who were deceased or missing.
Abstract
Results confirmed that the higher the number of close relatives of the "unavailable alleged father" (UAF), the greater the success rate of conclusive final reports. The inclusion of only one or distant UAF relatives when there are no other options can result in a low probability of a conclusive report. The UAF cases composed 3.3 percent of the sample (858 cases out of 26,187) reviews for the study period. The data obtained refer to the worldwide most used 17 loci. For this set of markers, 19 percent of results for UAF cases were inconclusive. When the cases were re-analyzed using different systems in addition to the 17 loci, some cases turned to conclusive, and the percentage of inconclusive cases declined; however, even with additional markers, cases involving only a few of the UAF's close relatives remained inconclusive. 1 table, 7 figures, and 7 references