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Highly limited empirical research has supported the existence of the "CSI effect," defined as the influence of heavy forensic television program viewership on perceptions of scientific evidence and juror decision- making. Recently, cultivation theory has been proposed as a potential explanation of any television viewing influence, but virtually no prior studies have distinguished crime show sub-genres (fiction and documentary-style) in viewership measures. The current study investigated whether a difference score measure of fiction-to-documentary forensic television program viewership was related to juror decision-making. Participants were 79 actual jurors who viewed a video recorded summary of a real murder trial, then completed measures of forensic television viewership and perceived realism, verdict preferences, verdict reasons, and perceptions of the presented evidence. Viewership predicted verdict preference as hypothesized, with heavier fiction viewers rendering more acquittals compared to lighter viewers. However, heavier fiction viewers were no more likely to mention DNA evidence as a verdict reason or report a greater preference for either the prosecution's or defense's evidence. These findings suggest that relative sub-genre viewership may be important in establishing empirical support of the CSI effect.
There is little doubt that the American public has taken a keen interest in crime investigation and forensic science over the past decade, particularly as reflected in television programming. In a recent Frontline program episode entitled "The Real CSI," well-known forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht remarked, "There's this great, great hunger, this incredible fascination with forensic science. I often quip that we are up there now with sex, motherhood, apple pie, and baseball" (Cediel & Bergman, 2012). This interest has likely been sparked by the enormous popularity of television programs such as CBS network's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and a plethora of other crime and forensic science- based programs. In June 2012, at the end of its twelfth season, CSI was named the most watched television program in the world for the fifth time in seven years, with an estimated 63 million viewers worldwide (Bibel, 2012), and clone program NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service was named the most popular television program in America during the 2012-13 season, even garnering more viewers than Sunday Night Football (Patten, 2013). Furthermore, as of this writing, CSI, NCIS, and NCIS: Los Angeles can all be found among...