Prisoners' views of CSI's portrayal of forensic identification technologies: a grounded assessment

Abstract

Drawing on interviews with prison inmates in Portugal, the aim of this paper is to contribute towards a more practical approach and greater sensitivity to the situatedness of the so-called CSI effect by examining the heterogeneous elements involved in the construction of meanings for forensic science and technology. It discusses the ways in which this particular group’s representations of forensic genetics reveal forms of exposure to, but also distancing from, the cultural images circulated by the media. The results indicate that, given that they are in an advantageous position for acquiring knowledge of these issues, this group is relatively skeptical of fictionalized portrayals of DNA technology as infallible and as the most powerful tool that can be used to solve crime. Prison inmates construct a grounded assessment of forensic technologies that derives from the position they occupy in the real world of crime and criminal investigation.