CSI Forensic Evidence

Have you seen CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or Bones? It is a Hollywood TV show that is mainly about forensic science where forensic scientists apply science to criminal and civil laws. It does wonders like spreading science and educating people about the technology that is available in the real world. But those TV shows do not accurately represents the responsibility of forensic scientist in terms of procedures, life-style and technological abilities in the real world; some differences are trivial but some are significant.

There are two types of forensic scientist, those who travels to the crime scene or accidents to search for and collect evidence are called crime scene investigators. Whereas those who will be the ones staying in the laboratory

For example, on CSI, a computer will automatically matches fingerprints to those in the database, however, in reality, forensic scientist must perform a detailed work before getting a match on the fingerprints. Other than that, forensic science TV shows show that all laboratories are fancy, huge, and well-equipped but in the real world, most labs are under-equipped. Furthermore, the characters in CSI are able to catch the suspect by watching real-time footage from a surveillance camera or by zooming in on a suspect’s license plate. It is true that this technology exists, however, the cameras in stored produces a blurry picture. In fact, many places have cameras that are not set up to record a video or even broken cameras. In addition to that, forensic scientist in TV shows has the ability to take the blurriest piece of the CCTV footage to expand and enhance it to reveal a written data or the reflection of the suspect in an apartment window. This cannot happen in real life, even though there is the technology to enhance an image but it is very limited. This is one of the most inaccurate representation in

For instance, upon reaching the crime scene, crime scene investigators must manage and reconstruct the ‘event’ that happened by isolating the area, documentation, and organization. They will have to walk through the scene and determine how the evidence should be collected. They will also take photographs of the crime scene and the evidence. Moreover, crime scene investigators have to note down every single detail of their observations and findings. Furthermore, they collect all physical evidence that are relevant to the case by using tweezers, black light for latent fingerprints or bodily fluids, and specialized kits. This is a very important procedure that they have to follow because any contamination of the evidence can jeopardize the case. These are accurately represented because in TV shows they show it at the start of a