The CSI Effect

The ACS has an article on the effect of the media on some of law enforcement officials’ daily duties. This is called the “CSI Effect” and I learned about it in the sociology class titled Criminology. The article starts out by describing an episode of a television crime drama. In the episode, all the pieces of the puzzle are collected but the jury is not convinced because the crime lab did not perform a DNA analysis of the blood sample. This is a problem in today’s legal system because jurors are expecting more physical evidence because they are influenced by the television crime dramas.

The positive effect of a higher expectation is its influence on attorneys to work harder and create stronger cases, however, it also deters the focus of a case away from a more logical route or conclusion, which does not require as much physical evidence. Universities are also torn between the positive and negative effects of these dramas. Enrollment in forensics programs is increasing rapidly, however, these programs are struggling to get funding for their programs as well as the higher expectations of the students.

At a symposium held by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Las Vegas and Miami versions of CSI were compared to real crime investigations. The television shows seem to work backwards in comparison to the real situations. Whereas actors turn to instruments first, investigators perform visual examinations and asses the crime scene before ordering lab tests. In real-life, the instruments used and their results require analysis by the experimenter, which takes a long time and requires much research. However, on television, instruments present immense information about the crime in a matter of seconds. The whole process requires a lot of time and patience for the ultimate satisfaction of removing the criminal and community hazard from the streets and preventing another harmful act. Surprisingly, panelists at this symposium emphasized common sense when assessing the crime scene and the evidence.