title: It was one of my brothers.
abstract: When DNA evidence is used to implicate a suspect, it may be of interest to know whether it is likely that the suspect's near relatives also share the suspect's DNA profile. In this study we discuss methods for evaluating the probability that at least one of a set of the suspect's full or half-siblings shares the suspect's DNA profile. We present three such methods: exact calculation, estimation via Monte Carlo simulations, and estimation by means of sandwiching the probability between an upper and a lower bound. We show that, under many circumstances, this upper bound itself provides an extremely quick and accurate estimate of the probability that at least one of the relatives matches the suspect's profile.
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics Research Center, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7566, Raleigh, NC 27695-7566, USA. amya@statgen.ncsu.edu
authors.forename: Amy D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Bruce S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Weir
mesh_terms: D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods*; D053803:Forensic Genetics; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D010375:Pedigree; D035781:Siblings