Managing the CSI Effect

Managing the CSI Effect: Inside and Outside the Courtroom

The popularity of the TV show CSI and other crime shows it has spawned prompts criminal justice practitioners, academics and the media to speculate over the impact the shows have on juror behavior. Although the media fuels the assumption, very little empirical evidence exists to tie viewership of CSI and other fictional or true crime TV show counterparts to an increased likelihood that jurors will acquit defendants. Still, there is little question that these shows affect juror expectations: jurors now expect to see testable scientific evidence presented in criminal cases. If not, suspicion can rise over the legitimacy of the charges or competency of the prosecution. These expectations necessitate changes in the way prosecutors approach their cases, both inside and outside the courtroom.  Led by three prosecutors who are nationally recognized as experts in the use of DNA evidence in criminal prosecutions, the 90-minute webinar looks at some of the things prosecutors should consider and steps they can take to manage expectations raised by fictionalized accounts of forensics evidence in real-world criminal practice

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Note: the quality of the audio in the introductory minutes improves considerably after six minutes.