By Scott K. Johnson, Ars Technica

The wolf — once quite literally a symbol of evil — was very nearly driven to extirpation in the United States before conservation measures began to offer protection to the iconic predators. That protection culminated in the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which made it a federal crime to kill any species listed as endangered. In recent years, populations in several regions (including Yellowstone National Park, where they were notably reintroduced in 1995) have been steadily recovering.

Forensic DNA databases are a potentially powerful law enforcement tool, but may disproportionately target poor and dark-skinned wrongdoers, biotechnologically magnifying flaws in criminal justice systems.

“Forensic DNA databases are growing to mirror racial disparities in arrest practices and incarceration rates,” write sociologists Troy Duster and Peter Chow-White in an Oct. 4 Public Library of Science Medicine essay.

In the last decade, as DNA became the gold standard of forensic evidence, DNA collection by law enforcers became routine. At least 56 countries have a national DNA database. In...