In recent years, the application of technoscience to the investigation of crime, generally known as “forensic science,” has become increasingly significant. This development has been celebrated by a variety of media sources, most notably the fictionalized technoscience-driven crime drama, CSI. The popularity of forensics-oriented media has promoted concerns about possible unintended consequences, in which the general public that composes the jury pool supposedly entertains a fantasized notion of the power of forensic technoscience. This presentation explores the supposed “CSI effect” and asks what is the nature of this effect, what is the evidence that it is in fact occurring, and what assumptions about technoscience and law are embedded in popular anxieties about the CSI effect?
WILL-AM580 FOCUS interview with Simon Cole