Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 306
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – PASSAGE – 3
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST
READING PASSAGE – 3
RESEARCH COMMITTED A CRIME
A. At the start of the 20th century, Scotland Yard’s fingerprint bureau began a quiet revolution in policing. A hundred years on, detectives have a new tool at their disposal in the form of DNA matching. In 1995 the government set up a national database recording the DNA of everyone who was convicted of a crime, hoping that it would make future cases easier to crack. Since then the England and Wales database has swollen to 5.5m entries, covering 4.8m citizens, some profiles are duplicates, or some 9% of the population. It is thought to be the biggest DNA database in the world. Despite plans announced this week to limit its growth, it looks likely to stay that way.
B. The reason for the database’s size is that since 2004 it has included not just those convicted of crimes but those who have been merely arrested. As far as police are concerned, the bigger the pool, the more chance of a match with their next crime scene. But the inclusion of people who have never committed a crime has been controversial. Up to a million of those in the database do not have a conviction. Chief constables have the discretion to remove profiles if they choose, but that seldom happens. One MP, Diane Abbott, is running surgeries to show her constituents how to appeal. Still, only a few hundred profiles are deleted each year.
IELTS General Reading Test
C. Last December the European Court of Human Rights ruled that holding so many innocent people’s DNA records “could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society”. On November 11th the Home Office released plans to trim the number of people being included, a bit. People arrested and released will still have their DNA held, but only for six years. Under-18s in the same situation will stay on the database for three years.
D. As is now customary, the plans include tougher rules on terrorism: those cleared of terror offences could still have their DNA held indefinitely, subject to regular reviews. And the Home Office proposes to give the police the power to take DNA from people who have convictions pre-dating the database. No one knows how many are in this group, but the back catalogue could inflate the database dramatically. Chris Sims, the chief constable with responsibility for the database, expects forces to use the power “proactively”
IELTS General Reading Test
E. Whether the European Court will be satisfied with these tweaks remains to be seen. The opposition Conservatives say that if they win power at the approaching general election they will copy the Scottish system, in which people who are not convicted usually have their DNA removed from the database as soon as the case against them is dropped. Keeping the records of those who have done nothing wrong undermines the traditional presumption of innocence, the Tories say.
F. The government argues that shrinking the pool of people on the database means that fewer crimes will be solved. The Association of Chief Police Officers examined a set of homicide and rape cases from last year in which a DNA match had been made with a profile on the national database. In about a tenth of these cases, the match was with someone who was on the database despite not having a conviction.
G. Home Office boffins justify the six-year retention of innocents’ DNA with research showing that people who are let off after an arrest are more likely than the general public to be rearrested. Their likelihood of rearrest only drops back to average levels after six years, the number-crunchers found. Interestingly, juveniles take longer to return to a ‘normal’ risk profile than adults, leading Home Office scientists to note that there is a case for retaining their DNA for longer than that of adults, not shorter, as the government has decided.
IELTS General Reading Test
H. High profile cases have made even liberal-minded folk think twice about limiting the size of the database. Last year Mark Dixie was jailed for a rape and murder that might never have been solved had he not had a DNA sample taken following his arrest, and subsequent release, over a pub brawl a few months later. The prospect of even a handful of killers evading justice will make it hard for any government to cut the database back much more.
Questions 28 – 35
The text has eight paragraphs, A – H.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
- Records of non-convicts helps
- On record without conviction
- Database is too large
- Hardly democratic
- Previous offenders included
- Database unlikely to be cut by much
- Against the idea of innocence
- The largest of its kind
- Higher chance of being arrested again
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 36 – 40
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
36. The European Court of Human Rights believes that having non-convicts on the database is ……………….
37. Chris Sims thinks that the ………………. should have a proactive approach to using the database.
38. In Scotland, innocent people’s DNA records are removed when the case ………………. .
39. The time needed for young people to return to normal risk profile is ………………. for adults.
40. Mark Dixie was convicted as a result if a DNA sample taken after a ………………. .
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS ARE BELOW
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
28. viii
29. ii
30. iv
31. v
32. vii
33. i
34. ix
35. vi
36. NOT NECESSARY
37. FORCES
38. IS DROPPED
39. LONGER THAN
40. PUB BRAWL
IELTS General Reading Test