ABSTRACT
Growing awareness of the serial nature of a significant proportion of sexual crimes has motivated scientific and behavioral efforts to determine ways of linking crimes perpetrated by a single offender. Increasingly, DNA analysis allows investigators and prosecutors not only to scientifically determine the identity of the perpetrator in a single case of sexual assault, but also to ascribe responsibility to the offender, in some instances for cases that have occurred over long time intervals and geographically distinct locales. However, the availability of DNA evidence is only beginning to be consistently and readily obtainable. In a significant proportion of sexual crimes, no DNA evidence is left at the scene or what is available for analysis is insufficient to allow for a definitive identification.
