If you are a fan of CSI, be it the Gil Grissom original or the various spin-off shows, it’s probably better if you don’t get called up for jury service. Programs such as Forensic files, Law and Order, CSI, CSI Miami etc may be hugely popular and thoroughly entertaining but they have created what is know in academic and professional circles as the ‘CSI effect’
According to Max Houck, director of the Forensic Science Initiative, a program that develops research and professional training for forensic scientists, “The CSI effect is basically the perception of the near-infallibility of forensic science in response to the TV show,”
The main distortion between fictional portrayals and the application of forensic science in the real world is ‘time frame’. It can take several weeks, sometimes months to get results back from the lab, however, in the fictional world of forensic science and crime scene investigation, results invariabaly come back straight away.
It would seem that the CSI effect is most visible in the court room, particularly among jurors. Max Houck mentioned above, argues that Prosecutors fear the CSI...
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