Forensic Science

1290 Words3 Pages

As many families around the world consume biased information from crime scene shows like 48 Hours Mystery, CSI, Castle, and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, perception of what a court room trial is truly like is altered. When watching these television shows people grow opinions about crime scene investigations and how information is gathered; his or her ideas may become extreme based on what they have seen on television, it affects the way he or she might handle being a juror in a criminal case. Although crime investigation programs are for entertainment purposes only, juries have been influenced when deciding a verdict for a defendant, have had a tendency to hold high expectations for evidence within a case, and have assumed that all criminal investigations deal with high end technology.
While Americans watch crime scene investigation shows they are subconsciously comparing real life murder investigation to the fictional television version. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is one of the most watched programs in the United States, causing uproar of the “CSI effect” in many court room trials. The CSI effect is, “the impact that viewing fictional criminal investigation shows like Crime Scene Investigation ("CSI") has upon jurors' real life decision-making processes” (Lawson). Not until 2005 did the CSI effect become a controversial issue in the United States, when the media exploded declaring that television coverage is “caus[ing]changes in jury behavior in real criminal trials” (Cole). Now that the CSI effect has been encountered in many court systems around the country, prosecutors have to give reasoning behind why they do not have criminal evidence for their specific case, causing juries to give questionable verdicts.
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...ua K. "Judges Should Take Steps to Counter CSI's Influence on Jurors." Forensic Technology.Ed. Sylvia Engdahl. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "CSI Effect—Does It Really Exist?" National District Attorneys Association, 2007.Opposing Viewpoints in Context.Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
Shelton, Donald E. "Expectation of Forensic Evidence Has No Bearing on Jurors' Decisions." Forensic Technology.Ed. Sylvia Engdahl. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "The 'CSI Effect': Does It Really Exist?" National Institute of Justice Journal (Mar. 2008). Opposing Viewpoints in Context.Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
"When guilt or innocence depends on fact or fiction: CSI and similar shows are blurring the lines between television and reality." Globe & Mail [Toronto, Canada] 22 Nov. 2006: A16. Opposing Viewpoints in Context.Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

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