This article discusses DNA tests used by the police and justice systems in France to predict a suspect’s appearance or origin. It focuses on the effects of different conceptions of privacy when genetic information enters the semipublic domain. I analyze how a contemporary process of racialization is fostered by the combination of a concept of privacy founded on visibility and DNA-based technologies of appearance. Drawing on 35 interviews with the various professionals involved (police officers, geneticists and experts, and judges), I show first the preponderance of a depoliticized point of view connecting privacy with secrecy and obscuring the risks of stigmatizing populations. I then analyze the scientific relationship between what is visible and what lies inside the body, offering an understanding of the aporia of norms based on appearance and how, despite certain contradictions, geneticists contribute to the process of racialization. Finally, I explain how this process develops further when information moves from the world of science to the worlds of the police and the media. In conclusion, I argue that the existence of these technologies transforms normative frameworks and, by focusing attention on what is visible, makes tests connecting crime, origin, and DNA acceptable by depoliticizing them.

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外观和起源

本文讨论了法国警察和司法系统用来预测嫌疑人外貌或出身的 DNA 测试。它侧重于当遗传信息进入半公共领域时不同隐私概念的影响。我分析了基于可见性和基于 DNA 的外观技术的隐私概念是如何促进当代种族化进程的。通过对相关专业人士（警察、遗传学家和专家以及法官）的 35 次采访，我首先展示了一种将隐私与保密联系起来并掩盖污名化人群的风险的非政治化观点的优势。然后我分析可见的东西和身体内部的东西之间的科学关系，提供对基于外表的规范的理解，以及尽管存在某些矛盾，遗传学家如何为种族化进程做出贡献。最后，我解释了当信息从科学世界转移到警察和媒体世界时，这个过程如何进一步发展。总之，我认为这些技术的存在改变了规范框架，并且通过将注意力集中在可见的东西上，通过将犯罪、起源和 DNA 去政治化，使测试变得可以接受。