Purpose

While conventional autosomal STRs have been used since the 1990's, Y-STR technology is a more recent development. Kits to detect Y-STRs, present only on the Y-chromosome, were not commercially available until the early 2000's. As the forensic and legal communities have become more informed about the advantages of Y-STRs, the use of this technology has increased vastly.

Since implementing Y-STR testing in the fall of 2002, Orchid Cellmark's Dallas laboratory has performed Y-STR analysis in more than 400 cases. The samples submitted for Y-STR testing include those from active forensic casework, cold cases, post-conviction cases, kinship studies, and samples analyzed for historical purposes. The data from many of these cases, submitted for Y-STR testing between the years 2002 to 2007, have been compiled and analyzed.

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