The Invisible Consensus: The Creation of Argentina’s National Genetic Data Registry for Criminal Investigation

Abstract

In September 2024, Argentina enacted Law 27.759, which established the National Genetic Data Registry for Criminal Investigation. This law expands the scope of the National Genetic Data Registry related to Sexual Offenses (created in 2013) and changes the conditions governing the use of genetic data in criminal investigations. Its enactment originated from an executive branch bill sent to Congress in April 2024 as part of a "package" of proposed reforms.

Drawing on a qualitative approach and with the support of political discourse analysis tools, the study of its parliamentary debate allows us to examine how the use of genetic data is problematized; how it is articulated with a particular political definition of the security function; and what consensuses and differences emerge in that framework. Likewise, the analysis of these discussions and the approved law makes it possible to identify some key elements for the study of the new conditions established for criminal investigation, the practical logics it enables, and its implications in terms of a reconfiguration of the field of "the government of (in)security.