Csi Written Analysis

Written Analysis 2

Popular Culture

26 November 2013

Written Analysis 2

        The popular television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has many rituals and a few stereotypes. These rituals are played out every episode and are what the show is based on. Each episode has a murder or two. After the murder has been committed, the investigators collect evidence. Once the evidence is collected they analyze the evidence. Once the evidence is analyzed they identify the killer. Once the killer is identified, they arrest the killer. Show is over. Every episode goes through the same rituals.

        Some say that the show CSI is really good and is forensically correct. Others say that the show makes forensic tests up and is all lies. Some say that the show portrays the career path of a forensic investigator as all glory and rather easy with all of the new technology. Others say that the show is a total farce because forensic crime scene investigators do not do everything that the ones on the show do. Forensic crime scene investigators only analyze the evidence that they are brought. They do nothing else. The only rituals from the show that are correct, in my opinion, are the ones of them analyzing the evidence. It is a TV show, it is fictional and does not claim to be 100 percent accurate or it would be a documentary.

        The stereotype from the show identifies the investigators as crime solvers. This is not true. Forensic crime scene investigators have the task of analyzing the evidence that law enforcement gathers and brings to them. Investigators are usually only in the lab and do not go to crime scenes. I have a cousin who works in a forensic lab and her job is strictly analyzing the evidence and passing on the results to law enforcement. She also says that the stereotype the show portrays makes investigators the ones who solve the crimes. That is untrue, law enforcement solves the crimes with the evidence that the investigators analyze.