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CSI Effect: Fingerprinting the Lawn
Monika Koppel
SJVC Online
English 122 Unit 4
Benjamin B. Andrews
December 5, 2012
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Abstract
Seeing is not always believing. People have become obsessed with television shows like CSI:
Crime Scene Investigation. These obsessions have caused viewers to believe everything they
see. They think they know how forensic science works and how to “comb” through a crime
scene. Law enforcement and forensic scientist have become frustrated with these people when
they are trying to their job. What people need to keep in mind is many things are similar to real
life like the computer systems, labs, and access to guns, but Hollywood may have exaggerated
the truth a little. Being able to separate real life and television is becoming a special talent.
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CSI Effect: Fingerprinting the Lawn
“That is not how they do it on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” Statements like this are
beginning to be heard by many actual forensic scientists throughout the country while they are
working a crime scene. What is known as the CSI Effect is starting to take hold of viewers of the
popular television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The CSI Effect is caused by people
watching crime scene television shows and believing everything about it; this makes it difficult
for the judicial system to get things done (Shelton, 2008). Many cases have gone to court and
the criminals have been acquitted because of this problem. Real police officers and forensic
scientists have to deal with the criticism of the public when they are doing their jobs and trying
to solve crimes. Although some aspects of the show are real many people do not realize how
very different the television show is versus real life. When it comes to the computer systems, the
crime labs, and the gun slinging opportunities for forensic scientist the television show may have
dramatized techniques a little bit.
Modern day forensic scientists rely a lot on computer systems. Although the computer
systems on the television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation can get you a DNA match within
minutes, it does not happen like that in the real world. DNA testing takes quite a bit of time
“usually several weeks because of the legwork involved in matching base pair sequences”
(Oracle Education Foundation, n.d., para 2). Scientists require two samples, one from the crime
scene and one from the suspect. They have to be taken apart and then compared. Along with
quick DNA testing another clearly exaggerated truth is finger printing. On the television show a
forensic scientists can plug a fingerprint into the computer and the computer will run through all
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the fingerprints in its database, with apparently everyone in the worlds fingerprints on file, and
give you a conclusive match to a suspect (Discovery Communications, 2012). In all actuality
when a fingerprint is lifted and put into a computer the computer will run through a database of
fingerprints and will give a probability that a fingerprint may be a match. Some computers are
set to give a list of possible matches; a forensic scientist has to make the determination of how
closely the prints match. The fact that real life forensic labs use the techniques that are shown on
the television show gives the common person the belief that that how the tests are done and the
results should be ready within minutes.
While watching the show many people find themselves admiring the stylish and
glamorous scientists and labs. They think, “wow look at this person solving crimes and not
breaking a sweat.” On television the scientist never gets messy either. “In real life, as one actual
forensic scientist wrote in an online professional newsletter, ‘After several hours on the scene it
looks like I have taken a bath in fingerprint powder’" (Discovery Communications, 2012, para
3). The scientist is not the only thing that gets filthy. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation depicts the
lab as a casual place full of machines and computers where the scientist can run tests and enjoy
their lunch. While there are many machines in a forensic lab, scientists do not eat or drink there.
Not eating in a lab protects not only the scientist but also the case they are working on. The
scientist could be running labs on infected blood or other body fluids and could contaminate him
or herself if they are eating while doing it. They also could drop pieces of their food onto the test
and contaminate the evidence making it void and unusable. A forensic lab is ran very strictly to
uphold their credentials and reputation, so although the show gets the equipment and lab set up
close, scientists will be found working in their lab coats with their masks, gloves, and eye
protection on.
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While the forensic scientist is wearing their personal protective devices they usually are
not kicking in doors and arresting people too. Scientists will be called out to crime scenes to
investigate but are not expected to be carrying guns or tackle people to the ground. On the
television show the CSI team goes out to crime scenes and starts investigating, sometimes having
to kick in the doors and arrest the bad guys. Forensic scientists have no law enforcement
authority and have no power to make arrests (Lytel, 2011). A real life forensic scientist does not
have much use for carrying around a gun; the only time they would be shooting a gun while at
work would be when they are testing one for evidence. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation depicts
the forensic scientist with being the equivalent of a police officer. In real life and on the show
they do work alongside the law enforcement during a crime and they do go out to gory crime
scenes but they do not kick-in doors all the while having their guns locked and loaded.
Modern day technology gives forensic science the edge in solving cases but the computer
systems and crime labs are not quite the same as they are portrayed in the popular television
show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, not to mention the possibility of a forensic scientist to
shoot a “bad guy”. Both the show and real life forensics rely on collecting and processing
evidence to solve cases, it is how the evidence is collected and processed that is different from
real life and television. When a victim became upset with the scientist for not fingerprinting the
lawn that is how the world knows the CSI Effect has taken hold. The work of CSI type units is
highly valuable to law enforcement and to the community for both television and the real world;
it is just important to know when television stops and real life begins.
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Reference
Discovery Communications. (2012). TV Versus Reality. Investigation Discovery. Retrieved
from http://investigation.discovery.com/investigation/forensics/reality/reality.html
Lytel, B. (2011, December 29). Realism and the Television Crime Drama: CSI vs. Real Life.
Forensic Program. Retrieved from http://brendalytel.hubpages.com/hub/Realism-andthe-Television-Crime Drama-CSI-vs-Real-Life
Oracle Education Foundation. (n.d.). Forensic DNA. Oracle Education Foundation. Retrieved
from http://library.thinkquest.org/28599/courtroom.htm
Shelton, H. D. (2008, March). The 'CSI Effect': Does It Really Exist? National Institute of
Justice. Retrieved from http://www.nij.gov/journals/259/csi-effect.htm