‘CSI effect’ no help for criminals

WHEN CSI: Crime Scene Investigation launched in 2000, detailing the forensic techniques of the Las Vegas Police Department, social commentators warned that the “CSI effect” gave criminals the means of, literally, getting away with murder.

But now a research project has proved that the phenomenon does not exist. A team of psychologists at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, trawled police databases, interviewed criminals and carried out crime-scene experiments.

“We are able to state with relative certainty that people who watch CSI are no better at covering their tracks than other people,” said Dr Andreas Baranowski.

However, the study, published in the International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, did show that male subjects performed better than female subjects in covering up their crimes, and that younger subjects did better than older subjects.