Pop Forensic Psychology: What’s Not Quite Right in Today’s Crime Shows [View All]

Pop Forensic Psychology: What’s Not Quite Right in Today’s Crime Shows

Thanks to pop culture shows such as the “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” franchised programs (“CSI: Miami, Las Vegas and New York”) as well as true crime stories featured on the show “Forensic Files,” the once nearly unheard of aspect of the legal system, forensic psychology, has emerged into full and popular view. The downside is that the way investigations are portrayed in these shows is not always accurate, yet much of the general public believes this to be the case. As a result, many people often have unrealistic expectations of the judicial system, which is better know as the “CSI effect.” The worst part is, according to an article, written by Judge Donald Shelton, this phenomenon has reached a fevered pitch in and among juries in recent years.

Named for the most popular of these programs, the CSI effect occurs when shows portraying overtly evident acts of investigative prowess employ what many experts in the field consider outlandish and dramatic tools of their trades or methods of detection. The effect is solidified when fans of these shows are riveted by crime solving procedures, which usually take months – if not years – to complete in real life, but are quickly solved within one episode of the program. Fans then assume that these same procedures are commonplace and standard for the average law enforcement or judicial system and mistakenly demand the same results.

In an article for USAtoday.com, Richard Willing explains how where juries once depended upon the tactful and sometimes forceful convictions of the prosecution or defense attorney, juries now look to television for an added opinion on the matter of justice. Evidence, which once understood as fragile and dependent, is now viewed as an infallible and easily gained task thanks to scientific and technological portrayals on forensics shows. In fact, as PBS.org article published on February, 2011, points out, one of the more egregious shortcomings of these forensics shows includes actual CSI agents doing unnecessary testing and procedures simply to present to a jury.

The tasks given to many of the characters in these shows are often unrealistic as well. Where law enforcement in real terms is divided between duties, forensic psychology shows often portray death investigators as gun-toting, door-breaking officers on the street. This is not wholly true. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times by Molly Hennessy-Fiske , the majority of large jurisdictions throughout the country do not allow their forensics investigators to carry weapons at all.

http://www.popbunker.net/2011/04/pop-forensic-psychology-todays-crime-shows/