Dna: The Efficiency Of Personal Identity And The Csi Effect
DNA: The Efficiency of Personal Identity and the CSI Effect
Introduction
CSI, Cold Case, Law and Order and NCIS are just a few of popular forensic police dramas to have swept the ratings of America’s television shows. In a world focused around the truth and reality TV, the viewing public enjoys the thrill of police dramas. There’s been a murder and everyone suspects the husband who is clearly guilty. But wait, the detective found a single hair and by matching the DNA in the hair to the immediate family they find that it was not the husband at all but in fact it was the victim’s step-brother.
The discovery of DNA was a monumental phenomenon that will forever be used as an indispensable technique in producing evidence and incriminating those that would otherwise run free. America’s thirst for the thrill of criminal justice television shows was proven in 1995. One of the most televised verdicts ever shown attracted an audience of 95 million viewers. This is 10 million more viewers than the 1969 walk on the moon and 5 million more than the Clinton-Dole debate (Moret 1995). The “verdict heard round the world” of course was that of O.J. Simpson’s murder trial in which he was suspected in killing his ex-wife and her friend. The amount of DNA evidence was overwhelming but the question of the items being planted there in an effort to frame Simpson in addition to the shaky discoveries still being made about DNA, O.J. was proclaimed not guilty (Moret 1995).
When a crime is committed, the basic what, where, when, who and how need to be discovered in order to be solved. What and where are among the first to be discovered. The how comes next and typically resembles a weapon. When can be figured out in a couple of different ways and the discovery of DNA and its uses has been one of a couple different techniques for discovery the time in which a crime was committed. Up until the 1980’s, the multiple places that DNA is found and...
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