How to select a satisfying typing program for paternity testing.

Abstract

The efficiency of a typing program for paternity testing concerns three specific aspects: first, what is the percentage of non-fathers that cannot be excluded from paternity; second, what is the percentage of true fathers that cannot be recognized as probable fathers, and third, what is the percentage of non-fathers that will be assigned as probable fathers. When extensive materials for observation with any specific typing program are not directly available, only the chance of non-exclusion of non-fathers can be calculated in a relatively simple way. The aim of the present study was to find a relationship between this and the other two criteria. It was found that the variance of the distribution of natural logarithms of paternity index values is approximated rather well by the formula var. ln I = 0.65 X (n(ln 1/ne)2) (n = the number of genetic systems of the typing program and ne = the chance of non-exclusion of non-fathers). This allows the estimation of the two other critical percentages: the percentage of true fathers that cannot be assigned, and the percentage of non-fathers that will be assigned as probably true fathers.