ABSTRACT
An easy culprit to blame for the gap is perhaps the emergence of several crime shows, the Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) series in particular, that depict the accuracy and infallibility of forensic science evidence in an exaggerated manner. Prosecutors have feared that the CSI effect will amplify a jury's demands for corroboration through forensic science evidence, thereby raising the bar to a standard that the prosecution may not always be able to meet. Certainly forensic science experts may encounter difficulties during their first few encounters with the legal system, with complaints including getting ambushed on the stand, being misunderstood by judges and jurors, and being misquoted by the lawyers during subsequent legal arguments. There are definite reliability concerns respect to forensic science evidence. Forensic sciences try to sort what happened well after unique events have occurred, and well after any number of unknown forces and variables has played a role in those unique events.
