 Mystery: April 05, 2023 Issue [#11893] |
This week: Not like TV Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week:
"Mystery spread its cloak across the sky.
We lost our way.
Shadows fell from trees.
They knew why."
~From "House of Four Doors" by the Moody Blues |
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Most people have only a general idea of how the legal system in the area where they live works. Unless you work in law enforcement or the legal profession or have had the misfortune to be a crime victim or accused of a crime, most of your knowledge of the justice system probably comes from books, movies, or TV shows.
Crime fiction and true crime dramas are extremely popular right now. According to various studies, 20-30% of the most popular TV shows in the US in the last ten years were crime dramas. One poll conducted in 2022 found that nearly half of all Americans watch true crime shows and approximately 13% stated that it was their favorite genre.
While some crime fiction dramas are more realistic than others, they don't paint a completely accurate picture of law enforcement and the legal system. Even true crime shows such as Unsolved Mysteries and Forensic Files are edited for drama and may give an unrealistic idea of the investigation process.
Shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and its many spinoffs focus on forensic scientists and their their contributions to solving criminal cases. As a scientist myself, I love that fact that scientists are the heroes of these shows, but the portrayal of forensic science is quite inaccurate. The scientists in these shows investigate crimes, interrogate suspects, and make arrests, which does not happen in real life.
The CSI effect describes the effect of the inaccurate portrayal of forensic science on these shows on public perception. It refers to fans of the shows developing unrealistic expectations of forensic science. While studies disagree on the actual magnitude of the effect, some studies show that when fans of the shows serve as jurors, they expect more forensic evidence and are less likely to convict based on circumstantial evidence. This effect causes problems when jurors expect forensic testing that is unnecessary or impossible. For example, one juror is reported to have said that they didn't feel the police had enough evidence for conviction because they did not dust the lawn for fingerprints.
A similar effect is Perry Mason Syndrome, which is based on the fictional attorney played by Raymond Burr from 1957-1966. The show focused on courtroom scenes in which Mason often was able to prove his client's innocence by getting the true guilty party to confess under cross-examination. One actual juror stated that he did not feel the defense attorney proved his client was innocent, because he did not elicit a confession from anyone else.
Something to try: Write a story in which a juror is affected by TV crime drama.
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