Media and Criminal Justice: The CSI Effect

Media and Myths in Criminal Justice: The CSI Effect illustrates how media coverage and television programs inform the publicrs"s perception of criminal justice. The CSI Effect can be characterized as the phenomenon whereby fiction is mistaken for reality and the assumption that all criminal cases can be solved through the employment of hi-tech forensic science such as crime scene investigation and DNA testing as depcited on television crime shows. This text provides broad, balanced, and comprehensive coverage of timely events in CSI, prosecutors, and wrongful convictions. The author explores some common misconceptions and helps readers towards a critical analysis of the information they see in the media and entertainment.

Chapter Preface
Chapter Foreword
Chapter Dedication & Acknowledgments
Chapter About the Author
ChapterChapter 1 The Media and the CSI Craze
ChapterChapter 2 Motion Pictures, Popular Television Dramas, News Reports
ChapterChapter 3 Wars on Crime and Junkies
ChapterChapter 4 Wars on Sex Offenders and Poverty
ChapterChapter 5 War on Immigrants
ChapterChapter 6 Crime Scene Investigations, Forensics, and Junk Science
ChapterChapter 7 Prosecutors
ChapterChapter 8 Wrongful Convictions
ChapterChapter 9 The Death Penalty
ChapterChapter 10 Methodology and Findings
ChapterChapter 11 Recommendations to Reduce Wrongful Convictions and Eliminate Capital Punishment
ChapterAppendix 1 Questionnaire
ChapterIndex