ABSTRACT
International Organization for Standardization 207 8.1.4 How to Establish an ISO 17025-Based Quality Management System? 214 8.1.5 PT and Collaborative Exercises 217 8.1.6 QA Outside United States and Europe 222 8.1.7 Major Dierences in Requirements between DAB versus ISO 17025 224 8.1.8 Selection of PT Provider (Accredited versus Nonaccredited) from the
View of Forensic Laboratories 224 8.2 Validation 226
8.2.1 Denitions of Validation 227 8.2.2 Level of Validation 228 8.2.3 Procedure of Internal Validation 233
8.2.3.1 Minimum Number of Samples for Internal Validation 234 8.2.4 Documentation 234 8.2.5 Reference Materials 235
8.2.5.1 NIST SRMs 236 8.3 Costs and Benets of the QA Implementation 238 8.4 Potential for Error in Forensic DNA Analysis 239
8.4.1 Mishandling of Samples 240 8.4.2 Contamination 241 8.4.3 Error Rates in Forensic DNA Testing 246
8.4.3.1 Should an Error Be Included in Calculations? 247 References 247
results. e American Bar Association has recommended that, “Crime laboratories and medical examiner ocers should be accredited, examiners should be certied, and procedures should be standardized” (American Bar Association 2006). We can state that a QA system, if implemented properly, forces the laboratory to continuously improve its practices and procedures. us, the QA system improves the integrity of results released by the laboratory and provides evidence of its ability to perform tests reliably and competently.
