You might have heard of the CSI effect: It’s the unreasonable expectation fostered by television shows like CSI. It has forever changed what takes place during trials.

Shows like CSI, NCIS and others like them are like modern versions of Starsky and Hutch, only in addition to silly action scenes, they have also have silly science. While I can live with some of it, much of what happens in these shows is simple science fiction — but jurors don’t know that.

On these new crime shows, one person does everything from DNA analysis to classifying fingerprints to handling fiber evidence. These disciplines take years to learn and I don’t care how smart the technician, one person not only couldn’t do it all, but think how credible would an expert be if he or she could testify to doing the work of any entire crime lab on their own? It would be like having a surgeon who is also a cardiologist, a neurologist, a dermatologist, a psychiatrist, a gastroenterologist and so on and so on. I don’t want someone like that operating on my heart — or handling my evidence.

But it’s not all bad: More young people are attracted to forensic science. The bad thing is that it taints a jury’s expectations. 

For a real-life look at how DNA is obtained and analyzed, check this out: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/forensics.shtml.