Popular Crime Dramas Impact American Pop Culture

 

By Nancy Beardsley
The ever-popular crime drama has taken on a new twist in American popular culture. A growing number of successful television shows and novels now revolve¹ around forensic² science and medicine, featuring characters who analyze³ blood stains, bone fragments and other evidence to help solve crimes.
American television viewers who can't get enough of the popular show CSI may now watch versions set in Las Vegas, New York and Miami. Short for "Crime Scene Investigation," the shows all move from crime scenes to science labs, where the main characters help identify victims, learn how they died, and help catch the killers⁴.
(TV Snippet)
Between weekly episodes of CSI, fans of the genre⁵ can also watch shows like Forensic Files, The New Detectives, and Cold Case Files, or read novels by best selling authors like Patricia Cornwell. She's drawn⁶ on her experience working for Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner to create a prize-winning series featuring a crime solving doctor named Kay Scarpetta. Ms. Cornwell believes the huge strides made in the forensic sciences help account for the popular interest.
"When you look at a body or you look at a piece of clothing left behind, we've always asked the same questions. What does this mean? Why is there this tear? What is this stain? But what is different now is that we have objective tools that can interpret some of these hieroglyphics⁷ and begin to unlock the secrets of what went on."
Writers like Patricia Cornwell offer readers a chance to learn details of those advances while they're being entertained. Her latest crime thriller⁸, called Trace, involves the use of trace, or microscopic⁹, evidence to solve the mysterious death of a 14-year-old girl.
"Swabs of the girl's tongue reveal fibers¹⁰ and even what turns out to be human bone dust. I actually sent two trace evidence examiners to Paris to go through the catacombs and collect soil samples to study human bone dust. I do a lot of research to see what something would look like, and then figure out what would the person think if they found something like this, and where did it come from."
A growing number of American young people now dream of following in the footsteps of fictitious¹¹ forensic scientists. Universities across the United States are establishing new courses and programs in the field, while existing programs are experiencing a dramatic rise in applications. Max Houck is director of the Forensic Science Initiative at West Virginia University.
"We started in 1997 with four graduates. This past year, out of probably about 4500 freshmen¹², over 500 listed their major as forensic science."
But Mr. Houck says there's also a high drop-out rate.
"Students watch CSI or whatever TV show you want to point out, and they have an impression of what actually happens in the work. Most of them don't realize how much science there is in the field, and so they come up hard and fast against their first year of biology and chemistry, and they come to the realization¹³ that it's not wearing cool sunglasses, driving a Hummer, and running around with a badge and a gun."
NB: "Are you a fan of the novels and of shows like 'CSI?'"
MH: "I'm a fan of some of the novels. I'm not a big fan of the show, although some of the writers call me and ask me technical questions, and I'm glad to help them. But ignoring the fact that the show is 43 minutes or whatever and everything gets solved in that time period, minus the commercials, rarely if ever do you have one person do everything from the crime scene to the analysis to the arrest to the interview, the whole thing."
Best-selling novelist Kathy Reichs agrees that the stories aren't always true to life. She's the author of Monday Mourning, Deja Dead and other stories that draw on her work as a forensic anthropologist¹⁴, commuting¹⁵ between labs in North Carolina and the Canadian city of Montreal. While her stories are based on her own cases and cutting edge scientific research, she says her real life job isn't always as exciting as her fiction.
"There are cases that are more mundane¹⁶ than others where you find old bones in the woods. and they turn out to have been dragged from a cemetery¹⁷ by dogs or something. And there are moments of tedium¹⁸. I've done exhumations where I had to spend two weeks just teasing pieces of leatherized flesh off the bones before I could even look at them."
And Kathy Reichs says that in reality, cases don't always get resolved as neatly¹⁹ as they do in books or on television.
"I have a warehouse²⁰ at my lab, and it's full of boxes, each with a number and each of those is a case that hasn't been solved. I've actually had cases brought to me by coroners because the family could not accept the initial finding that it was undetermined. The families feel in many cases, because of watching these shows, that everything can be answered. And that's just not true."
But Kathy Reichs says she's delighted by the constant inquiries²¹ she gets from young people interested in becoming forensic scientists. Max Houck of West Virginia University agrees that the best selling novels and hit TV shows have been good for his profession, and for science education in general.
"All kinds of science programs, especially at the high school level, have seen a huge upswing in interest, and I think that's largely because they do make it look cool. There is some science involved, and they do try to base it on cases or papers that have come out in the academic literature. So the students see that, and that's part of what gets them hooked."
Max Houck compares the trend to the fascination²² with the space race starting in the late 1950s. Earlier generations watched rockets go up and dreamed of being astronauts. Today they watch crimes being solved and want to be forensic scientists. And while only a few will succeed, many more will learn just how interesting science can be.
I am Nancy Beardsley.
注释：
forensic 法院的
blood stains 血斑
fragment 碎片
CSI 电视节目《犯罪现场调查》
episode 一段情节
genre 类型，流派
hieroglyphic 象形文字
microscopic 精微的
catacomb 地下墓穴
Hummer 发出嗡嗡声的东西，这里指警车
badge 徽章
anthropologist 人类学者
mundane 寻常的，普通的
coroner 验尸官

 

1 revolve   

vi.(使)旋转；循环出现

参考例句：

• The planets revolve around the sun.行星绕着太阳运转。
• The wheels began to revolve slowly.车轮开始慢慢转动。

2 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

3 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

4 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

5 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

6 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

7 hieroglyphics   

n.pl.象形文字

参考例句：

• Hieroglyphics are carved into the walls of the temple. 寺庙的墙壁上刻着象形文字。
• His writing is so bad it just looks like hieroglyphics to me. 他写的糟透了，对我来说就像天书一样。

8 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。

9 microscopic   

adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
• A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。

10 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

11 fictitious   

adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的

参考例句：

• She invented a fictitious boyfriend to put him off.她虚构出一个男朋友来拒绝他。
• The story my mother told me when I was young is fictitious.小时候妈妈对我讲的那个故事是虚构的。

12 freshmen   

n.（中学或大学的）一年级学生( freshman的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We are freshmen and they are sophomores. 我们是一年级学生，他们是二年级学生。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• University freshmen get lots of razzing, but they like the initiation. 大一新生受各种嘲弄，但是他们对这种入门经验甘之如饴。 来自辞典例句

13 realization   

n.实现；认识到，深刻了解

参考例句：

• We shall gladly lend every effort in our power toward its realization.我们将乐意为它的实现而竭尽全力。
• He came to the realization that he would never make a good teacher.他逐渐认识到自己永远不会成为好老师。

14 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

15 commuting   

交换（的）

参考例句：

• I used the commuting time to read and answer my mail. 我利用上下班在汽车中的时间来阅读和答复给我的函电。
• Noncommuting objects are as real to the mathematicians as commuting objects. 对于数学家来说，不可交换的对象与可交换的对象是一样真实的。

16 mundane   

adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的

参考例句：

• I hope I can get an interesting job and not something mundane.我希望我可以得到的是一份有趣的工作，而不是一份平凡无奇的。
• I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.我发现生活有时挺诙谐的，即使是最平凡的事情也能影响我们的感知。

17 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

18 tedium   

n.单调；烦闷

参考例句：

• We played games to relieve the tedium of the journey.我们玩游戏，来解除旅行的沉闷。
• In myself I could observe the following sources of tedium. 从我自己身上，我所观察到的烦闷的根源有下列一些。

19 neatly   

adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地

参考例句：

• Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
• The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。

20 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

21 inquiries   

n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending further inquiries. 他获得保释，等候进一步调查。
• I have failed to reach them by postal inquiries. 我未能通过邮政查询与他们取得联系。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

22 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。