How the "CSI Effect" is influencing courtrooms in the U. S.
It's termed the CSI Effect. Prosecutors have been complaining that shows like CSI are creating the expectation that every trial must feature high-tech forensic tests. They fear that when they don't show off CSI-style technology, juries might let criminals get away with murder.
Donald Shelton, the chief judge of Watenshaw County, Mich., is skeptical. He began to notice that reports about the CSI Effect were long on anecdote, and short on data.
"One of the things that surprised me when I started looking into the CSI Effect was that there was no empirical research. Even the so-called studies that were out there were simply surveys of lawyers' opinions," he says.
Jurors don't need to watch CSI to be aware of advances in technology. They're more likely to be affected by the technology in their own pocket. Shelton's study showed that owning the latest BlackBerry has a much bigger impact on how jurors evaluate scientific evidence.
"The more sophisticated technological devices that jurors had, the higher their expectations for the prosecutors to present evidence," Shelton says.
Whatever the substance of the connection, lawyers, judges, and death investigators are acting as if the CSI Effect is real.
Some states now allow lawyers to strike potential jurors based on their TV habits. Judges are issuing instructions that warn juries about expecting too much scientific evidence based on what they see on TV.
In the field, Shelton says death investigators sometimes run useless tests, just to show they went the extra CSI mile.
"They will perform scientific tests and present evidence of that to the jury. Even if the results don't show guilt or innocence either way, just to show the jury that they did it."
Link:http://media.npr.org/documents/2011/feb/shelton-CSI-study.pdf
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/06/133497696/is-the-csi-effect-influencing-courtrooms