A CSI Effect Investigation: Media, Curiosity, and the Pursuit of Closure

The CSI Effect is the belief that popular television programs such as CBS's CSI and other programs about law, crime investigation and forensic science influence real-world expectations about criminal justice and forensic science capabilities. These claims include concerns that these shows help criminals elude capture by educating criminals about forensic evidence techniques, create misconceptions about crime scene investigation and influence juror expectations about forensic evidence. The CSI Effect phenomenon is only supported by media reports and anecdotal observations. This analysis does not intend to prove or disprove the existence of a CSI Effect, but instead will consider three psychosocial conditions to offer a conceptual understanding of how a phenomenon such as the CSI Effect could occur. These conditions include (1) media, specifically the television crime genre, and its influence on understandings of forensic science and its application to criminal justice, (2) a historical and modern curiosity with death and morbid images, and (3) the formulaic elements in television programs within the crime genre that nurture a psychological need for closure.