'CSI Effect' frustrates the real forensics experts
Television shows have created unrealistic forensic expectations
By Paula Reed Ward
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
October 26, 2006
Television shows like the popular CBS drama "CSI" and its brethren make solving crimes look easy.
Within an hour, the DNA analysis is done, the fingerprints have been matched, the fiber has been identified and the suspect has confessed.
For real forensics experts, who can spend days laboring over expensive equipment to evaluate mounds of evidence, those shows can be frustrating.
They have created an unrealistic expectation of what forensic science can do, said Max M. Houck, director of the Forensic Science Initiative research office at West Virginia University.
He spoke yesterday about what he calls the "CSI Effect" at a conference for law enforcement officials and lawyers at the Sheraton Station Square Hotel, explaining how such fictional crime-solving has bled over into the daily work routine of forensic scientists across the country.
Police processing crime scenes now over-collect evidence, and prosecutors order unnecessary tests to make sure that every eventuality is covered, Mr. Houck said. Defense attorneys, too, get in on the act, he continued, by demanding perfect science all the time.
"Part of what gets us irritated by 'CSI,' they think the truth doesn't equal good drama," he said. "They think they have to 'sex up' the story lines."
That means the tediousness of the job has to be eliminated.
"No one wants to watch someone stare through a microscope for six hours," he said.
As an example of how the "CSI Effect" has carried over into real life, Mr. Houck cited jurors who have said they found defendants "not guilty" because there was not enough physical evidence presented, even if there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence.
Often times, said Sgt. Paul McComb, who works with the Pittsburgh police Mobile Crime Unit, there is no physical evidence -- no fingerprints, no blood -- and so he must explain to a jury how that can happen.
"What we need to find is a solution in the courtroom -- how to tell a jury the difference between what's TV and what's reality," added Joe Meyers, a detective with the Pittsburgh police homicide unit.
Shows like "CSI" make the public believe that the scientists' resources are unending, Mr. Houck said. The labs on television have unlimited budgets and access to the best equipment in the world -- something that is uncommon in the real world.
According to a study by the U.S. Department of Justice at the end of 2002, there was a backlog of more than half-a-million cases in crime labs across the country.
To get a 30-day turnaround in forensics testing, Mr. Houck said, 1,900 more employees would be needed, at a cost of $70 million.
But there is one positive thing to come out of shows like "CSI," he said: The number of forensic science programs across the country is soaring.
At WVU, a campus of 27,000 students, forensic science is now the most popular major, with more than 400 students enrolled.