The C.S.I. Effect: How Crime Shows Change Real Life

Many people all over the world watch and enjoy shows such as C.S.I. But do you ever stop and think how these shows affect us as a society? As someone in forensics, I would like to share some of the ideas and assumptions that people have due to these shows.

With the knowledge that I have, I cringe every time I watch a show like C.S.I. The show is great for entertainment purposes, but that's about it. I think people are far too easily influenced by these types of shows. I can understand why people don't see the actual technical aspects of forensics: the shows would not be nearly as entertaining. Waiting weeks for D.N.A. results from a backlogged lab and calling out actual experts to scenes isn't nearly as exciting as someone swabbing a stain on site and telling you all about it right there on the spot. But these shows affect society in a way that the average person couldn't imagine.

Have you ever been called for jury duty? Imagine getting called, and having to serve on a murder trial. You have a prosecutor with a massive amount of circumstantial evidence. You have witnesses placing the suspect at the scene. All signs point to the suspect. The defense has a weak argument full of holes. You all go to deliberate after closing arguments. Pretty much all of you agree that the suspect is guilty. But there are a couple jurors who are not convinced. Why? They wanted to see D.N.A. evidence! Or even fibers that came from the carpet of the suspect. Eventually you end up with a hung jury. And a guilty suspect could very well walk away a free man. I'm not saying this happens with every case, but you would be shocked how many cases end up like this. Within the business, it's called the "C.S.I. Effect".

The "C.S.I. Effect" doesn't only rear its head in the civilian world. There are plenty of new homicide detectives and veteran police officers that fall prey to it. You will get detectives that want the D.N.A. results "in a couple hours". With the backlog of crime in the forensics labs around the country, this is almost an impossible task. Another common request is trying to get D.N.A. off of items that you have a very low success rate of collection from. For instance, I have heard stories of detectives asking forensic techs to fish feces out of toilets to see if they can get D.N.A. from them. The misconceptions shown on T.V. spread like wildfire through our society because people believe that this is the way they really work.

Another problem with these shows is that people watch them, and decide "Hey, I want to go to college for this!". They go to school, and when they get into the actual workforce, they realize this isn't like anything that they have seen on T.V. The rise in students has turned the forensic field into a competitive crunch with a fairly high turnover rate thanks to the people who aren't there for the right reasons. There are places trying to help secure jobs for people in it for the right reasons, with extra training and certifications that make a huge difference on your job application.

Now, these shows are not 100% inaccurate. They do have some honest qualities to them. Most fiction is based on some small amount of truth. But nobody tromps through labs and shuffles around evidence the way they do in these shows. And people don't get instant results for D.N.A., trace evidence, and other things. If you truly love crime shows, I encourage you to watch channels like TruTV (formerly Court TV) or the Investigative Discovery Channel. Shows like Forensic Files, Dr. G: Medical Examiner, Crime 360 and others are a more accurate representation of life in the labs and other aspects of crime. And by all means, continue to watch any crime shows you want. If you are genuinely interested in helping your community, I highly suggest going to school and perusing a job you would love in the field. I just ask you to stop and think about the lack of realism in the entertainment industry. While most adults have the common sense to figure this out, some don't, and they have a massive amount of influence in different areas of the justice system.