LLRX.com Article on Forensic Evidence and the CSI Effect

The website LLRX.com has published an article by Ken Strutin on Forensic Evidence and the CSI Effect:

"There is a question about whether impressions created by the media in its treatment and portrayal of forensic proof as either irrefutable or absolutely necessary for conviction is truly impacting the outcome of criminal cases."

"A growing body of research is examining this "CSI effect" from the defense and prosecution perspectives (...) For example, juries might be overly impressed with and uncritical of fingerprint or DNA test results or contrarily have unrealistic expectations about the need for such evidence or its accuracy and reliability"

By an interesting coincidence, one of the articles to which Strutin refers was written by Michigan state judge Donald E. Shelton, one of the 3 speakers at a panel I helped organize at the recent annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (the panel was about the impact that the use of social networking media by jurors, lawyers, and reporters has on courtroom process).

And the debate over the existence of a "CSI Effect" is one of the topics the Association's group of courthouse and law society libraries wants to consider for a workshop at the 2011 annual conference in Calgary.