Being able to provide an accurate determination of the visible external characteristics (EVCs) of a person from a DNA sample that he/she left at a crime scene is important, because there will always be cases in which the evidence DNA sample will not match either a suspect DNA profile or any known person in a criminal DNA database. In such cases, it would be helpful to have a DNA-based determination of the EVCs of the donor of the evidence sample, in order to narrow the potential pool of suspects. This would enable the police investigators to focus on specific groups of people as suspects. Recent technological advances in micro array-based genotyping technologies allow parallel testing of up to over 1 million genetic markers. This, together with theoretical advancement in association testing, has provided a powerful tool for identifying genes involved in complex traits, including some EVCs. Specific challenges involved in determining EVCs are discussed. Promising advancements in identifying specific EVCs from DNA analysis pertain to sex, eye color, and hair color. Less promising progress has been made in identifying adult body height. A firm legal basis must be established for the application of promising DNA qualitative techniques for determining EVCs. In order to get the attention of legislative bodies on this issue, the forensic community should engage in public discourse on these issues. 62 references