CSI Effect - Background

Background

The CSI effect is named for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, a television program which first aired in 2000. In CSI, a fictional team of crime scene investigators solve murders in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. In each episode, the discovery of a dead body leads to a criminal investigation by members of the team, who gather and analyze forensic evidence, question witnesses, and apprehend suspects. The show's popularity led to two spin-offs: CSI: Miami, which debuted in 2002, and CSI: NY, first aired in 2004. The CSI franchise's success resulted in the production of many similar shows; in turn, the "CSI effect" has been associated with other crime shows, including American Justice, Bones, Cold Case, Cold Case Files, Cold Squad, Criminal Minds, Crossing Jordan, Forensic Files, NCIS, Numb3rs, The Secrets of Forensic Science, Silent Witness, Waking the Dead, Wire in the Blood, and Without a Trace. Based on the Nielsen ratings, six of the top ten most popular television shows in the United States in 2005 were crime dramas, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation reached the number one ranking in November 2007.

Several aspects of popular crime shows have been criticized as being unrealistic. For instance, the show's characters not only investigate ("process") crime scenes, but they also conduct raids, engage in suspect pursuit and arrest, interrogate suspects, and solve cases, which falls under the responsibility of uniformed officers and detectives, not CSI personnel. Additionally, if CSIs process a crime scene it is inappropriate for them to also be involved in the examination and testing of any evidence collected from that scene as it would compromise the impartiality of scientific evidence. In real investigations, DNA and fingerprint data is often unobtainable and, when they are available, can take several weeks or months to process, whereas television crime labs usually get results within hours. In the first season of CSI, technicians made a plaster mold of the interior of a wound to determine the type of knife used to make the wound, which is not possible with current technology. Characters on television often use the word "match" to describe a definitive relationship between two pieces of evidence, whereas real forensic technicians tend to use terms that are less definite, which acknowledges that absolute certainty is often not possible.

Anthony E. Zuiker, creator of the CSI franchise, claimed that "all of the science is accurate" on the shows; researchers, however, have described CSI's portrayal of forensic science as "high-tech magic". Forensic scientist Thomas Mauriello estimated that 40 percent of the scientific techniques depicted on CSI do not exist. In addition to using unrealistic techniques, CSI ignores all elements of uncertainty present in real investigations, and instead portrays experimental results as absolute truth. The notion that these inaccurate portrayals could alter the public perception of forensic evidence was dubbed the "CSI effect", a term which began to appear in mainstream media as early as 2004. By 2009, more than 250 stories about the CSI effect had appeared in newspapers and magazines, including articles in National Geographic, Scientific American, and U.S. News & World Report.

Although the CSI effect is a recent phenomenon, it has long been recognized that media portrayals of the United States legal system are capable of significantly altering public awareness, knowledge, and opinions of it. A 2002 juror survey showed that viewers of the popular court show Judge Judy were greatly misinformed about the purpose of the judge within a courtroom. Earlier programs which may have affected public perception of "the legal or investigative systems" include Perry Mason (1957–66), Quincy, M.E. (1976–83) and the Law & Order franchise (1990–present). News media reports on criminal trials, extensive internet blogging, and the successes of the Innocence Project have also contributed to the increased public awareness of forensic science. Zuiker has stated that "'The CSI Effect' is, in my opinion, the most amazing thing that has ever come out of the series."