The CSI Effect
Was reading The Star comics this morning, and was surprised to find not one, but two cartoons alluding to CSI (on was BC, the other Hi and Lois).
This led me to an article on CNN, about how the popular series has led to juries having unrealistic expectations in terms forensic proof. A lot of people have forgotten that it is fact possible to convict someone based on circumstancial evidence and are instead demanding hard physical evidence.
Even in Malaysia there were some grumblings about how the local police is sorely lacking in the know how of collecting and analysing forensic evidence. The frustration is especially great for the relatives of victims of violent crimes such as rape and murder, where some such cases remain open for years due to lack of leads.
While it is exhilarating to see the good guys in CSI use their ingenuity to infer facts from the flimsiest of items, the more probable reality is a lot of detective grunt work, with some help from forensics.
In an ideal world, we should all be so lucky to have a bunch of dedicated scientists with all possible resources at their disposal to help us find those who caused us grief and sleepless nights.
1 comments:
In Malaysia, you'd be lucky if the police arrived at the scene pronto!
If I'm not wrong,a rape victim has to remember the time and date of the rape in order for the evidence to be strong enough to convict the rapist? What crap is that, you get raped and you are suppose to remember the date and time of it as though it's some special occassion!
The best I've heard is that, in some supposedly 'religious' states, there should be two 'religious' witnesses in a rape case. Well, if the witnesses were standing there watching someone got raped, isn't that ABETTING to the crime?
Sheesh!
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