Reconsidering The CSI Effect: Examining Factors Other than Crime Dramas on Expectations of Forensic Evidence

• In Event: Public Perception and the Crime Genre

Abstract

The CSI Effect proposes that fictional crime dramas affect juror expectations regarding the role of forensic evidence in criminal investigations though recent research has found little support for its existence beyond anecdotal accounts. The current study re-examines the issue through a consideration of other factors that may be impacting both juror beliefs about forensic evidence and their judgments in criminal cases. A detailed survey was administered to more than 100 undergraduate students. In an effort to gauge public expectations for forensic evidence, participants were first presented with a range of criminal offenses and were asked to estimate how likely it was for various types of forensic evidence to be present. Participants were then presented with two groups of hypothetical crime scenarios that varied the type of evidence present and asked how likely the case was to be solved and whether they would vote guilty. The study analyzes the extent to which participant responses in these situations vary according to their level of fictional crime show viewing habits, as well as takes into account their experience with the criminal justice system, general media exposure, and political affiliation to determine if these factors could be responsible for variations in participant responses.

Authors

• Carrie Trojan, Western Kentucky University

• James Kanan, Western Kentucky University