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The media has created the representation that criminal procedures contemplate juries and forensic science. The CSI-Effect was created through the evolution of the popular crime dramas CSI, NCIS, Bones, Law and Order, and Criminal Minds. The false of perception through these hit TV-shows are the result for the increase of criminal crime and criminal justice careers. It has been proven that people from the younger age have been the most influenced by these shows. These shows have been oversimplified, exaggerated, and glamorized which lead into a negative effect in society. The CSI Effect has been defined in three major ways. The first definition expresses that CSI makes irrational expectations on the part of jurors, making it harder for prosecutors …show more content…
to obtain convictions. The second definition refers to the way that CSI raises the stature of scientific evidence. The final definition is based on CSI’s increasing interest in the study forensics science and the influence of television. These definitions make the effects that these CSI shows have player in our society(Podlas). The CSI effect influences jurors assumptions with evidence confirming an argumentation. Jurors demand expensive and often unnecessary DNA tests, handwriting analyses, gunshot residue testing, and other procedures that are most of time not relevant to the case. In the ordinary CSI scene, every crime is explained with scientific tests, and these tests depend on the offender. Jurors also get informed through media that every crime can be comprehended through criminological confirmation, and that legal proof of blame exists in each crime. In a research survey it was revealed that 46 perecent of jurors expected to see some sort of scientific evidence in every criminal case, 22 perecent expected to see DNA evidence in, 36 percent expected to see finger evidence, 32 percent expected to see ballistic or other firearms laboratory evidence. This research also revealed that jurors expected to see scientific evidence for a particular type of a case. For example DNA evidence was demanded for violent, murder, rape, and more physical crime case by jurors.(Donald) However, for theft, breaking, entering case, and and cases involving a gun jurors were demanding fingerprint evidence. Meaning that jurors are more likely to not convict someone who is guilty because procedures and techniques they observed from the fictional television show were not applied in the case(Podlas). The second definition focuses on the way that CSI elevates scientific evidence to an unsupported level of certainty. In this manner, generally as law requirement expects that CSI will make jurors and the audience misinterpret the absence of evidence, others expect that CSI will lead jurors and the audience to aimlessly accept scientific proof. CIS effect has lead the world to believe that any testimonial evidence is trustworthy. In CSI, science leads to the correct answer. While, in real life, forensic and science conclusions are as good as the specialist who retrieve the evidence, test it, and draw conclusions from it. For example, DNA can be interpreted differently by different specialist. Multiple conclusion can be revealed with evidence. This is difficult because in some instances, evidence portrayed as “scientific” doesnt even resembles science at all. It's concrete but not the science that jurors rely on it to be. Many of the procedures used in forensic testing have never been proven by the scientific community. In fact, scientists have questioned whether procedures, like a dog sniff evidence, hair analysis, bite-mark analysis, earprints, fingerprints, and handwriting identification, is supported by real science. However, the world of science portrayed in CSI suggests otherwise. Also in real life cases running forensic and scientific test has an expense and depend on a budget, while In CSI shows there seems to be no budget or expense. Test in real life takes week and months to be completed and conclude while in CIS shows there run in 10 min or overnight. This is how evidence is being portrayed as the final conclusion to a crime seen in CSI shows(Podlas). The third definition of the CSI effect refers to the way that the shows promote and popularizes the field of criminal justice and forensics.
CSI has increased the public’s awareness of forensics and have motivated the funding for forensic sciences. Not only has CSI increased awareness for forensic science and criminal justice, it has also increased the interest in it. The public don't mind and look forward to jury duty. Also some predict CSI viewers, as jurors, are more prepared intelligently and understand forensic and expert testimony. Having the right mindset from CIS shows but demanding unnecessary analysis and not understanding how certain procedures work. Giving some credibility to CSI creators for providing some education to the viewers. The result of the popularity of CSI has had an effect to vocational and educational programs in sciences. Criminal forensics is now portrayed as a viable career. Law schools and university experienced a vast amount of applications over the years because of crime shows. For example, West Virginia University graduated only 4 Forensic Science undergrads in 1999. In 2004, that number increased to 400. However, there's is around 90 forensic science programs all over the United States. Making schools criminal forensic degree very competitive due to all the applicants every year. This chains along to the change of careers and drop out due to people expecting “CSI” rather than reality. CSI effect has became such an issue that in some unviersity there teaching the students “the CSI effect” to prevent misunderstanding. That's how CSI shows are popularizing the criminal justice field with the wrong
interpretation(Podlas). Study show that most people learn about law through the television and media. Even though most people haven't seen a courtroom most seen it on television and know how to behave and react towards it. People who are being involved in crime case tend to reflect and refer to television and media. Lacking in knowledge people used these hit TV shows as reference when it comes to law. CIS shows haven't just only influenced jurors and the public, it has also influenced the criminals. Due to the influence of televisions even your worst criminals are changing their behaviors based off what's presented on television. Most of the techniques used in crime shows are influencing criminals to cover their tracks. By using bleach to destroy DNA, there wearing gloves more commonly, there the taping shut—rather than DNA lciking envelopes for ransoms. Criminals themselves are being educated by the shows and are either being caught faster or leaving cases open. Television is no longer promoting accurate information and can be questioned highly for reliability.(Economist) The television industry has been discriminating variously, over the years. Like pop culture, mainstream television shows have included more American actors. This meaning there are barely Asian actors, Hispanic actors, nor any other race but Americans. The variety in most shows is nonexistent and has been taken as discrimination and sometimes even racism. In the CSI shows, most of the actors are men. This devalues women in the aspect that it shows women aren’t suited for this job. Rarely, has there been a female actor in these shows because they’re trying to demonstrate power. It wasn't till recently when the CSI franchise decided to have female lead in CSI N(Arquette). The diversity of these shows doesn’t always depend on gender. In most of the episodes that have aired, usually American actors, especially whites, have portrayed the act of a detective and the strong intimidating interrogator happens to be an African American male. People with disability is the majority of minority in the U.S. However, huge television shows never had any lead characters with disabilities or even actors with disabilities. In America you have veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with acquired disabilities, the number of Americans living with disabilities will continue to grow. In order to create realism you need add reality into this TV-shows. These shows focus on what's popular and trending, rather than adding realism to create a more educational program. In CSI franchise the main leads are always over intelligent detectives with no flaws and never fail cases. Every case in CSI gets solved inferring that those detectives are never wrong. The diversity in CSI franchise has evolved but there still missing aspects. The Merchants of cool video revealed how pop culture has been the main factor for companies and corporation growth. It's known that teenagers are the mina factor and spend the most money and time on anything they consider is “cool.” The launch of the first CSI show in 2000 was sparked by the pop culture of that era. It was being watched continuously and made enough revenue to have three franchise; CSI, CSI Miami, and CSI NY with upto 15 season. The idea presented in Merchants of Cool video, used in CSI, is that companies are willing to keep putting out content based on what is trending. The CSI franchise didn't want to stick with one show and instead expand because of the pop culture and how much people watched CSI. In conclusion Pop culture is the main influence for the CSI franchise as shown in the video Merchants of Cool. The CSI effect has played a huge role in today's society, when it comes to criminal justice. With the different definitions that oversimplified and exaggerate forensic science, they’ve created the representation that criminal procedures contemplate juries. The first definition exposed the fact that jurors are more likely to convict someone who is guilty based on the procedures and techniques used in the CSI shows. The second definition how evidence being exaggerated and is what determines the conclusion of a crime case. The third definition expose the fact that CSI shows a promoting the wrong interpretation of criminal justice and influence Americans with the wrong knowledge. CSI shows have also represented very little diversity when it comes to race, and gender. Portraying that most people in these criminal justice fields are a certain race or gender. However, the CSI franchise has been a huge factor to the pop culture of the early 2000s and present day. More and more Americans are getting brainwashed by these shows because they are making their viewers believe that the tasks that are being completed are as easy as they show them. The criminal justice and forensic science careers consist of the tasks being presented, but far more complicated than revealed. Most of these television shows have to present more realistic information to provide a more educational purpose for their viewers.
Since the airing of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the other televised series that followed have led jurors to compare fiction with reality. The shows have changed the view on the real world of forensic science as the series have a world of forensic science of their own. For this paper the televised series titled Bones by forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs will be used as an example for comparison. In the series Bones Dr. Temperance Brenan arrives at the scene of the crime to examine the skeletal remains found in the scene of the crime equipped with one or more forensic kits. Upon momentarily examining the skeletal remains Dr. Brenan is able to determine the gender, ethnicity, and age. When this type of scenario is compared to nonfictional
What exactly are these shows that are causing so much controversy in the criminal justice and forensic science fields? The more well known CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, reeling in almos...
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was introduced to viewers in October 2000. Since that time, the franchise has added two versions in major metropolitan areas, now addressing crime scenarios in Las Vegas, Miami and New York City. Based on the most recent Nielsen ratings for primetime television shows, the CSI franchise claimed approximately 35 million viewers during the 2010 – 2011 viewing season. The popularity of forensic science drama on television has led officers of the court to voice opinions that there is a “CSI effect” which alters the juror pools and outcomes of criminal trial proceedings. The differences between made for television fiction and actual crime solving are many and when jurors consider themselves pseudo-experts those lines may get blurred in the courtroom.
Crime is a common public issue for people living in the inner city, but is not limited to only urban or highly populated cities as it can undoubtedly happen in small community and rural areas as well. In The Real CSI, the documentary exemplified many way in which experts used forensic science as evidence in trial cases to argue and to prove whether a person is innocent or guilty. In this paper, I explained the difference in fingerprinting technology depicted between television shows and in reality, how DNA technology change the way forensics evidence is used in the court proceedings, and how forensic evidence can be misused in the United States adversarial legal system.
Specifically, crime shows have given us, the TV audience as a whole, scripts or an expectation of what will/should happen in a variety of situations. It leads people to think about what is appropriate and what isn’t in terms of how the results of these situations play out. For example, in the CSI franchise, as the plot unfolds in each episode, it takes forensic evidence, such as DNA or fingerprints, to convict the villain. Before the technological breakthroughs made in the fields of biology and forensics, juries relied more on circumstantial evidence, and eyewitness accounts to prove someone was guilty. This is just one example of how crime shows have changed the general representations of what is the “correct” way to solve a crime.
“The ‘CSI Effect’; Forensic Science.” The Economist. 24 April 2010: 77 (US). Student Resources In
Costanzo, Mark, and Daniel Krauss. Forensic and legal psychology: psychological science applied to law. New York, NY: Worth Publishers, 2012. Print.
The social construction of myths of crime and criminal justice seems to follow a series of recurrent patterns. These patterns allow for an unprecedented amount of social attention to be focused upon a few isolated criminal events or issues. This attention is promoted by intense, but often brief, mass media coverage of a select problem. Intense social concern of an issue is achieved by a variety of means from the mass media, government, law enforcement officials, interpersonal communications, and the interests of reform groups whom all play major roles in focusing the publics attention on select so...
In the criminal justice system psychologist play several roles, but in the jury selection process they serve as a consultant. This essay will provide three instances of psychological concepts and illustrate how they are applied to the determination of juries. The essay will also address a common ethical obligation confronting psychologist in the areas of corrections, law enforcement, court systems, and academia.
In recent years, however, such programs as CSI that follows detectives at the Las Vegas Police Department Crime Scene Investigations Bureau as they solve puzzles and catch criminals. Perhaps one of the most well known shows with a forensic psychology theme, CSI has a large impact on viewers perceptions of forensic psychology. On one hand, the increased popularity of forensic psychology because of the show is good and more people are taking an interest in forensic psychology as a career. On the other hand, the forensic psychology that viewers see every week on television may not be exactly the same as forensic psychology in reality. Particularly programs such as CSI also overstate the ability of “hard” evidence (also known as forensic evidence), such as fingerprints and DNA, to provide evidence of definite innocence or guilt (Trask, 2007). They often disregard other components of the investigative process, such as police questioning, despite these being equally valid to establishing guilt (Nolan, 2006). This over-reliance on forensic evidence, due to the importance of forensic science being dramatized by television crime dramas, is also known as the CSI
This paper explores deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) collection and its relationship to solving crimes. The collection of DNA is one of the most important steps in identifying a suspect in a crime. DNA evidence can either convict or exonerate an individual of a crime. Furthermore, the accuracy of forensic identification of evidence has the possibility of leaving biased effects on a juror (Carrell, Krauss, Liberman, Miethe, 2008). This paper examines Carrells et al’s research along with three other research articles to review how DNA is collected, the effects that is has on a juror and the pros and cons of DNA collection in the Forensic Science and Criminal Justice community.
Throughout society there are both individuals and groups of people with a wide range of perceptions about crime and justice. These perceptions are influenced by the media and what the media presents. Media presents crime stories in ways that selectively distort and manipulate public perception, thus creating a false picture of crime. Therefore the media provides us with perceptions and social constructions about our world. Firstly I will be discussing the role of the media in constructing knowledge about crime. I will begin by explaining why the media is important, and go further to explain that media representations construct knowledge of crime and since knowledge about crime is constructed it does not necessarily capture reality in fact crime stories are often sensationalised. I will then link this to my central argument that the media shapes people’s perceptions of crime and how this is important as it can lead to changes in the law. I will then explain what it is that the public or society needs to be aware of when reading and watching media reports about crime. We need to be aware of bias and moral panics that are created by the media and how the media shapes or influence’s public perception through this, it is important for us to be aware of misleading or false crime stories so that we are not swayed by the media in believing what they want us to believe.
Crime scene investigators, also known as CSIs, have played an essential role in protecting citizens, by proving who is guilty, and who is innocent. CSIs use a large amount of Science and Math skills to solve crimes, resulting in a decent income. They are specialized in forensic science in order to examine crime scenes and recover important evidence (Career Cruising).
To conclude, the perception of crime is greatly impacted by how media portrays victims of crime, criminals and law enforcement officials are viewed. Often media organisations over-dramatize crime problems to gain consumer attention.
“The word ‘forensics’ means “connected with the courtroom”; so forensic science is, therefore, concerned with gathering hard evidence that can be presented in a trial” (Innes 9). Forensic science is a science that is applied specifically to legal matters, whether criminal or civil. “Few areas in the realm of science are as widespread and important as forensic science” (Hunter 12). Forensics is the one science that is most commonly used in everyday life. It is also a branch of science that incorporates other branches of science such as biology, chemistry, and etc. Since it is used almost every day “No one can dispute the importance of the contributions to society made by forensic science; the ability to solve crime is undeniably important” (Hunter 13). Forensic science has given criminal investigation a new edge. “Advances in science have opened the door for more effective evidence discovery, howev...