DNA is what I was referencing back in “The CSI Effect” where I mention the people who discovered it. It is the genetic coding of human beings. It is basically the binary code for humans. It is unique to every person with very minimal change in identical twins. When I text mined DNA, I expected to get a little of mention in the mid 1900’s and then for it to gradually jump in the 80’s then a little more in the 90’s. At the turn of the millennium, I expect to see a huge jump in the use. and I would suggest that it is because of the CSI Effect.

Here are my results:

Figure 7. This is a screenshot taken by my MacBook Pro of the the Time Magazine Corpus Text Mine of “DNA”.

As you can see, there was a presence in the mid 1900’s. It was gradually inclining from 1940’s to the 1970’s. Something interesting happened in the 80’s. It took a decline for something, but I wonder what made it decline. Was it maybe the 80’s music? Was it the war on drugs? Reaganomics? There were many things that could be the reason for the fall, but then there was a drastic increase in the 1990’s and then in the 2000’s there was an increase, but not as drastic and the previous decade. I believe I can attest this increase to the prevalence of the use of the phrase to “CSI” and “Crime Scene Investigation” because of the scientific advances that were made in those decades in respect to the subject. The real life affect that it has on the criminal justice system is made clear in this political cartoon (Figure 7.1) which focuses on the affect that DNA has had on the american public and by association the american jury.

Figure 7.1 (Ball, A). This a political cartoon where the joke lies in the one jury member being adamant that there should be DNA somewhere in this case.

I will now text mine the use of another form of forensic evidence, but it was not always looked upon with high regards. This next type of evidence has some viable uses and it has the ability to be very incriminating. In CSI, they are often used as the end of the trial reveal when they were not always that accurate.

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