CSI Popularizes Forensics
If you’ve never heard of “the CSI effect,” it’s actually made a positive change in the justice department. The basic idea is that, thanks to the television show CSI and all of its spin-offs, jurors are more demanding of forensic evidence in order to make a conviction. Recently we saw the release of the West Memphis Three. These three men were convicted of a murder with absolutely no real evidence against them. Finally, thanks in part to DNA evidence pointing elsewhere, the three men are now free.
In short, the CSI effect means fewer false convictions and fewer innocent people behind bars. It may even save several lives by pointing the authorities towards real criminals instead of innocent people. This effect is taking hold in all areas of criminal investigation, not just homicide investigations. For instance, with Dell computer forensics, computer experts can analyze digital evidence, solve computer related crimes, and gather evidence from computers to solve other crimes.
For instance, when you visit a website from your home computer, you leave a thumbprint of sorts. There is a digital data trail that shows a computer forensics investigator exactly where you’ve been. For most of us, this isn’t much of a problem, but for a criminal, this can lead the police to discover exactly what they’ve been doing, who they’ve been emailing with and so on. This has already been used to help capture a number of identity thieves and hackers.
Many offices employ computer forensics experts in order to catch white-collar criminals in the act and clear innocent employees and associates of charges and accusations. Computer forensics are essentially a digital version of what you see on CSI.
Categories: Life
