Everything Wrong With Every TV and Movie CSI Show

[Anonymous]

Before you even say, "it's just fiction, of course its fake," let me just say, of course it's just fiction and of course its fake for story telling purposes, but the thing about fiction is it has been proven that jurors and witnesses alike often suffer from the "CSI effect," meaning, they don't understand the realities of real crime scene investigation and its limitations, so they demand unrealistic amounts of evidence gathering, some that cannot be obtained, or that can clog up and prolong a court case, and/or actually let real guilty people off because "well you didn't prove this or that like I saw them do on a tv show," so they must be innocent. So here is the reality of CSI work:

1. Crime Scene Investigators wear designer street clothes and heels to crime scenes

Absolutely not. Anything at a crime scene can be evidence, and as such the last thing you want to do is contaminate or disturb it with your presence as well as CSI need to protect themselves. They wear personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent contamination of evidence and protect themselves from biological and chemical hazards. They can and do wear things like hoods and nets to cover their hair, bio/hazmat suits, tactical pants and shirts, steel toed boots, eye pro, gloves, respirators, etc all depending on what they are investigating and how dangerous the scene.

2. CSI ONLY investigate murders

Sorry to burst your tv bubble, but the majority of work CSI do is investigating lower end crimes, like burglaries, hit-and-runs, and home invasions. People who "saw a tv show" and want to join because of it, are often hit with the reality that it's A LOT of tedious note taking and evidence gathering that can be very slow as one has to be very meticulous as well as A LOT of paper work.

3. CSI's interview suspects

This one is wild. CSI are mainly civilians who are not police or detectives. Their job is to gather evidence not sit a perp down and interrogate him under the hot lights with what they just found 2 seconds ago on scene.

4. CSI are armed and ready in case a criminal pops up on scene

Mainly no. There are CSI with classifications as sworn officers who would legally carry a firearm, but most are just civilian status, meaning they would be unarmed on scene.

5. CSI can just rush evidence through whenever someone orders it so

There is a hell of a LONG list of people waiting to have their crimes solved whether that be murders or home invasions. A lot of times, labs are understaffed. Some officer walking in saying, rush my order for evidence, is not a thing for practical and legal purposes. Evidence must be carefully collected and analyzed. You REALLY do not want CSI getting this wrong. This process takes time, and must follow a strict chain of custody, one that if not followed, can see evidence thrown out or mishandled leading to inaccuracies. For basic cases where fingerprint analysis is needed, sure it can take a few hours, in line, behind all the other cases on deck, but it can also takes up to several years depending on how old the evidence is or how complex the case.

6. CSI just show up to a scene alone

No. Police are first called, and are on site at crime scenes where they are responsible for securing the scene to preserve evidence and protect the public. CSI don't bust in guns blazing, checking for criminals around the scene, and then start gathering evidence. Police remain on site until investigators have gone. Please note, this process can take multiple days, not just a few hours and then everyone just leaves, case solved.

7. CSI start immediately gathering evidence upon entry

No. CSI work has to be meticulous. They would enter into a crime scene once secure, and then do a walkthrough taking notes without actually touching anything--did the scene look tampered with, what seemed out of place, what seemed unusual, what are ones initial theories about what they think may have happened. Next, they would begin taking photographs, making sketches, and taking video evidence. Lastly, they carefully take evidence, fingerprints, samples, bag and tag which can be one hair strand at a time, one carpet fiber at a time, one blood smear. It is a long process. Everything they do CAN affect the case, so this is not a rushed process as to rush may destroy or neglect evidence.

8. CSI solve almost every murder case

The sad statistic about murder cases, is that only about 50% of all murder cases ever actually get solved. This is not just a product of a rag tag bunch of CSI, but police, witnesses, detectives doing countless long boring hours of continuous work, sometimes over decades for much harder cases with complex or little to no DNA or evidence.

[Anonymous]

Could never understand that show. Are they cops or forensics?

Its up there with murder she wrote where Jessica Fletcher comes to town like the angel of death and one her friends gets murdered and the local detectives decide to let her solve the murder in which she should really be the prime suspect. Like if someone read her new book theyd see how she planned to commit the murder.

How bout quincy the surgeon who solves the murders for his incompetent detective son.

Father downing mysteries where a priest and a nun run around solving murders for idiot cops.

Veronica mars is another. A high school student who solves murders for her incompetent detective father.

[DeeDeeDeVour]

Are you in law enforcement?

[JHNS98]

I mean, it's kind of the point. If they didn't solve every case , then it wouldn't be a procedural. It might be more true to the strict definition of a procedural if they didn't solve every case in one episode, but that would also kind if break the format.

Besides that, I also see these shows as more of action shows than crime shows. I've also heard that the military is very involved in Hollywood, which might explain why every other scene seems like a shooting scene.

Note that I'm not American, and my country doesn't have a civilian gun culture (outside heavily regulated hunting districts). Hence why I might find Hollywood shooting excessive.

[exitseven]

yes, and on TV it looks like the whole CSI dept has only one case to work on. In reality they are usually swamped with work.

[exitseven]

my uncle was a cop. He told me that the guys that worked in the coroners office were too busy gettign the gold fillings out of the bodies to do nay real work.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO😎

[Summeroflove]

I don’t have a problem with someone watching fiction TV shows. I have a problem with people who watch a episode and now think they know everything

[strateguy632]

I disagree both the fancy dress and murder topic are "for the show" it needs actor dress and high stakes!

[queenofcardio]

I used to watch CSI.

Very informative, thanks