CSI Effect

The April 25, 2005 U.S. News & World Report (on the Library's magazine rack) has an article on what is called the "CSI Effect", or in other words the effect that television shows are having on American juries and their decision making. It turns out that some of the forensic science on the show is not - how shall I say this - well, it's not real. This is a problem for you - the trial attorney - since the juries seem to expect that the science they see on television be used for their trial and are disappointed when it is not. For further discussion of what this means for the lawyer, see this on llrx.

The llrx article also discusses The National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law at Stetson University College of Law. The Clearinghouse is a work in progress, but they already have a database for the current status of the science in several areas. Useful for the attorney, but also fun to discover if what you see on TV is really possible.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat