Real Crime vs. Prime Time

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Crime dramas like CSI and NCIS top the rating charts. But with so many eyes on those scripted stories, what impact do these shows have on people's perceptions of real life crime situations?

Two Purdue University researchers, Communications Professor Glenn Sparks and doctoral student Susan Sarapin, surveyed adults in Tippecanoe County to try to answer that question.

They found that watching crime shows does change viewers' beliefs about how common criminal incidents are.

"The people who watched more crime television did estimate that there was a greater frequency in their neighborhood," said Sarapin.

"We found that the heavy viewers of crime drama were more likely to overestimate the frequency of death by murder," said Sparks.

Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington said he did not need research to feel the impact of crime shows. He said that people sometimes seem to think that real crime closely mirrors what they see on television.

"We have found that there seems to be an unrealistic level of proof that jurors are looking for, based upon these CSI shows," said Harrington.

Harrington said crime shows actually swayed jurors' opinions in one case, where a home owner called police about a burglary in progress and officers caught the suspect two blocks away.

"He had the stolen property on him, and he confessed. One of the questions the jurors wanted was why we didn't take fingerprint analysis of the inside of the garage," said Harrington.

Evidence is not always easy to collect.

"Fingerprints are not easily attainable. DNA doesn't exist on every surface. And, all those two things show us is identity. So, if identity is not an issue in the trial - meaning the defendant was apprehended and the police identified him or he confessed - there's no reason for law enforcement to even try to expend the time, resources and the lab time in doing the identification process, because it's not an issue," said Harrington.

DNA evidence and fingerprints are not taken at every crime scene because it would would cost a fortune to process.

"The cost would be outrageous to the public and we would need at least ten times the amount of labs to process that kind of information," said Harrington.

In reality, the state of Indiana has only two crime labs, and counties are limited on the number of items they can submit.

"I think the public thinks, here in Lafayette, that we have a lab like you see on CSI. We don't even have a lab here in Lafayette. Our nearest lab is either the state police post in Indianapolis or Lowell," said Harrington.

Even with evidence, crimes are not solved as quickly in real life as on the small screen, cautioned Tippecanoe County Coroner Martin Avolt.

"DNA, for instance, they do in 5 minutes. At best, if we turn in a request with the state police right now, there's a 6 month time delay," said Avolt.

Sometimes jurors believe that local police departments have an unrealistic level of technological capability. Harrington said that's a mindset he ran into in a different case.

"One of the jurors thought we should have had voice identification like they saw on TV. I don't know of any state that has voice print identification," said Harrington.

The news isn't all bad, however. Tippecanoe County Sheriff Tracy Brown said crime shows have helped in some ways.

"They've made the public more aware of the types of things we need to bring a criminal investigation to a close and get successful prosecution in the case," said Brown.

Harrington said before prosecutors choose jurors, they try to help potential candidates separate Hollywood from downtown Main Street Lafayette. He said jurors need to know the difference between reality and TV.

"It's Hollywood. Hollywood is to entertain you. When it comes to our world, we are here to gather evidence that we can use in the court of law to prove that a person has committed a crime," said Harrington.

Researchers Glenn Sparks and Susan Sarapin plan on doing experiments next. The duo said they will bring people into a lab and expose them to crime shows. Then, they will try to find out what judgments they have about what's going on in an actual courtroom.