The study, given to members of Congress on Thursday, also found that local police and crime labs have evidence from more than 540,000 unsolved crimes — including 52,000 homicides and 169,000 rapes — that has not been subjected to DNA or other tests that could help identify suspects. Local agencies often do not perform tests, the study found, because of personnel and funding shortages and a lack of understanding about DNA technology.

The report was done for the Justice Department by Washington State University and a Tacoma, Wash., law firm that represents a DNA equipment manufacturer. It outraged women's and victims' rights groups, which called on Congress to pass a proposal to increase spending on DNA tests and expand the reach of the nation's DNA database.

DNA, a cellular acid that carries an individual's unique genetic code, can be used to solve crimes such as rape and murder in which biological evidence is left at the crime scene. Since 1992, the FBI has kept a database that matches DNA taken from convicted criminals with DNA from the scenes of unsolved crimes. As of last month, the system had about 1.7 million DNA profiles and had scored about 11,800 matches.

But the system relies on states to collect DNA from criminals and suspects, and the rules for collecting DNA vary among the states. When the study was done last year, 31 states took DNA from all felons, while 19 took samples only from those convicted of violent crimes.

Massachusetts was one of the 19. In late 1997 and early 1998, four Springfield, Mass., women were found raped and killed in their homes or in nearby alleys. A DNA sample provided voluntarily by a suspect in the case linked him to all four slayings. The suspect had felony convictions in 1996 for breaking and entering and larceny. He was sentenced to community supervision.

If Massachusetts had required him to give a DNA sample after either of the 1996 convictions, the report said, "a DNA match could have been obtained after the first rape/murder, thereby preventing the subsequent three."

The study found similar cases in the other 18 states that did not take DNA from all felons. Since the study was completed, one of those states, West Virginia, has passed a law that requires anyone convicted of a felony to provide a DNA sample.

Barry Steinhardt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in New York City, warned against a "headlong rush" into drawing DNA from all felons. "We know that expanding the reach of the (DNA) databases increases the number of crimes solved, but at what cost, both financial and to our liberty?" said Steinhardt, who specializes in privacy law. "Sooner or later somebody is going to test (DNA) for a purpose other than what it is there for."