Abstract
The popular American television dramatic series, Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), with its emphasis on forensic analysis, has become an icon for anxieties within the legal system about truth-finding and legal outcomes. This chapter reviews empirical research on the “CSI effect” and then explores cultural dimensions of the show as suggested by analysis of its paradigms and style rather than the narrative content of specific episodes. CSI is related to larger trends within American legal culture and raises questions about the future of the rule of law.
Photo: Gunshot Residue Lab, Connecticut State Forensic Science Laboratory, 2006. Christina Spiesel, All rights reserved.
The author wishes to thank Pamela Hobbs, Elaine Pagliaro, Ann Kibbey, Neal Feigenson, and Sydney Spiesel for their contributions to her thinking. The opinions expressed are her own.
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Notes
- 1.
American television shows are broadcast around the world, but this discussion is confined particularly to the United States.
- 2.
Nielson ratings: The 2007 statistics are drawn from a report: http://www.sfgate.com/tvradio/nielsens/. Accessed April 9, 2007. 2010 statistics are from http://en-us.nielsen.com/rankings/insights/rankings/television. Last accessed January 30, 2010.
- 3.
In a more recent article, Judge Shelton reports on empirical studies on this notion of a “tech effect.” He concludes that there is an expectation of increased science in evidence, but the CSI itself is only a small part of the media stream that molds expectations. He does envision a problem of raised expectations for all parts of the criminal justice system, from changed legal strategies in argument to pressures on an inadequately funded justice system (Shelton 2010). For very recent coverage on the reality of medical examiner’s work in contrast to television drama, see A.C. Thompson et al. (2011).
- 4.
It is perhaps our own naiveté to imagine that people who serve in the justice system are not immune to the same media influences that the rest of us are. It should be no shock to us that Justice Scalia can say, seemingly without irony, that Jack Bauer, a character in Fox’s dramatic series 24, “saved Los Angeles.” Quoted by Peter Lattman (2007), “Justice Scalia hearts Jack Bauer.” Wall Street Journal Law Blogs. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/06/20/justice-scalia-hearts-jack-bauer/tab/article/. Last accessed August 8, 2010.
- 5.
This is perhaps indirectly substantiated in a recent article by Tamara F. Lawson (2009, 119). She examines specific cases and lays out her argument for a “CSI infection” in the ways the cases were handled. The term infection carries the emotional force of disease, corruption, and perhaps even epidemic in the criminal justice system from something outside, a viral presence, perhaps.
- 6.
From an interview with Elaine Pagliaro in March 2006. She is the former Acting Director of the Connecticut Forensics Science Laboratory. Notes on file with the author.
- 7.
For an analysis of specific crimes and their frequency in CSI, see Deutsch and Cavender (2008).
- 8.
See Wikipedia for technological history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoshop; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_camera#Digital_Cameras; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaroid_camera; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRI; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_profiling. This report details the history of surveillance technology in the United States: http://www.library.ca.gov/CRB/97/05/crb97-005.html#overview
- 9.
Gil Grissom, explaining to his team, first episode, October 6, 2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI:_Crime_Scene_Investigation. Last accessed February 4, 2011).
- 10.
From “Pilot” first broadcast October 6, 2000.
- 11.
There is a vast literature on photographic truth. For a general discussion of the role of photography in law, see Feigenson and Spiesel (2009).
- 12.
Color varies under different lighting conditions, hence, platonically inflected thinkers have long regarded color as unreliable compared to chiaroscuro, painting less reliable than drawing. The literature on this is large. Readers might try Gage (1993). Note that noir, meaning black, is a frequently used label for the whole class of crime fictions in various media, particularly arising from the dark lighting favored by filmmakers who created the genre.
- 13.
Elaine Pagliaro interview—noting disappointment of students who sign up for forensics training when they discover that the forensics people are not the investigators at all.
- 14.
Original air date—April 25, 2007.
- 15.
Note that I have rendered the Tait quote gender neutral as heterosexual women viewers might well have the same enjoyment from the beautiful young men pictured dead.
- 16.
See, for instance, Jeffrey Toobin’s article on hair and fiber evidence, “The CSI Effect,” Annals of Law, The New Yorker, May 07, 2007 at: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/07/070507fa_fact_toobin. For examples of coverage on other forensics problems, see Associated Press, “North Carolina: Crime Lab to Be Examined” March 5, 2010 at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/06/us/06brfs-CRIMELABTOBE_BRF.html?_r=1&ref=forensic_science; also Bob Herbert, “Innocent But Dead”, August 31, 2009 at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/opinion/01herbert.html?ref=forensic_science. All last accessed 8/4/2010CGI.
- 17.
For the discussion of CSI in the NRC report, see pp. 47–48.
- 18.
- 19.
There seems to be substantial agreement guesstimating that the plea-bargaining rates fall between 90 and 95% of all criminal cases. Established numbers for 2003 are in Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 426 tbl.5.24.
- 20.
I am very grateful to Pamela Hobbs who initially suggested to me, in 2006, that I ought to explore the connections when I presented an earlier version of this chapter.
- 21.
- 22.
For an extended discussion of the end of the ordeal and canon law, see McAuley (2006).
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Spiesel, C.O. (2014). Trial by Ordeal: CSI and the Rule of Law. In: Wagner, A., Sherwin, R. (eds) Law, Culture and Visual Studies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9322-6_37
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