Crispr is expected to revolutionise healthcare because it is a quick and cheap way to genetically edit genes. But the therapy has a more sinister side and has led to biohackers performing dangerous experiments on themselves.
The growing trend led the US FDA in to issue a warning against self-administration of genetic therapies, saying kits for human use were against the law.
Dr Eleanor Graham, programme leader in forensic science at Northumbria University, said it would require a "fairly extreme" medical intervention for criminals to use Crispr to alter their DNA.
But she added: "I could foresee a future when reference samples from a suspect may need to be tissue matched to the crime scene sample for comparison purposes, if this became a reality."
However other experts were more sceptical about the possibility of criminals genetically editing their DNA.
Dr Alexander Gray, of the Leverhulme Research Centre at the University of Dundee, said that genetic editing in the livers of mice had shown the new DNA eventually takes over, replacing the genetic code.
But he said it would be harder for humans. "If you were in the forensic database and you changed your DNA it would be possible to avoid detection, but I think it would be extremely difficult to achieve," he said.
"You can manipulate the genome but to do it on the scale where it would have a forensic effect would be tricky."
