In the opening episodes of Star Trek: Picard, two characters need to solve a murder in an apartment—but someone has scrubbed the floors, replaced the windows, and wiped all the alpaca spit from the walls. (The only eyewitness also exploded.) Undeterred, they resort to an alien device that can project a blurry hologram of the recent past. Discuss with your team: if investigators could use such a technology to observe what had happened in a crime or accident scene, would there be any need for judges or juries to determine guilt or innocence? Assuming it can only show you events from the last 24 hours or so, for what other purposes might such a technology be useful?

• The role of a jury in the court system upholds the significance of democracy in a society, the same could be said to the role of a judge; if an alien device that can project a blurry hologram of the recent past could exist, it would still not show the whole story of the crime that happened. For example, in a case where the defendant murdered another person because of self-defense, they would immediately be sentenced to life imprisonment because the hologram would only show the recent past (which in this case would only be a hologram of the crime scene) and not the entire picture: how and why it happened, and what exactly happened for the crime to be committed.

According to leading figures in the field, criminal forensics demands more than just swabbing for DNA and testing flecks of blood; it requires imagination. Discuss with your team: should prosecutors invest in hiring screenwriters and other storytellers to reconstruct how crimes happened? Do you think artificial intelligence could play a similar role in solving cases—or identifying suspects?

• Example of AI that has been used is Sweetie, she’s a “virtual little girl” that’s been used to catch pedophiles online. No, it can be said that lawyers and their legal team, in a way, are screenwriters and storytellers in court; they take into account what the situation is and what occurred and use the information they have attained to tell a concrete “storyline” of what happened. AI, specifically facial recognition, is used to identify suspects in present times and will continue to be further developed to solve criminal cases faster. However, it is important to note that AI still has many limitations and can even be detrimental.

In countries with trials by jury, some prosecutors worry that people who watch crime dramas on television will have unrealistic expectations of what forensic science can achieve. This so-called "CSI effect" might lead them to find defendants "not guilty" if they aren't presented with razor-sharp fingerprints, perfect DNA matches, and other feats of forensic wizardry—but these are far harder to obtain in the real world than on Netflix or the BBC. Then, when forensic evidence is presented at trial, they might overestimate its importance—discounting other evidence, such as eyewitness testimony or a robust alibi, that could exonerate the accused. Discuss with your team: should juries in criminal trials exclude people who watch too much crime-related television? Is this a real problem, and, if so, might it also affect judges, journalists, and political leaders?

• CONTEXT: The CSI effect posits that exposure to television programs that portray forensic science (e.g., CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) can change the way jurors evaluate forensic evidence. Cole and Dioso-Villa (2011) trace the term CSI effect to a 2002 Time magazine article, which suggested that CSI had the potential to alter the lay perception of how forensic science is done. In America, the jury selection process is extensive and can make or break the case because the fate of either the prosecutor or the defendant is literally in the jury’s hands. Juries should not exclude people who watch too much crime-related television because even if they did exclude them, that will not stop the jury from having certain biases. The CSI effect is a real problem; a real-life example wherein the CSI effect affected journalists is the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard case. Regardless of what you believe or think about the case, it is undeniable how much the story and evidences have been sensationalized by journalists, with both parties having been harassed and ridiculed by the general public even when the case has not been concluded. Another real-life example of the CSI effect is the Jeffrey Dahmer case. Yes, I will call out the people who enjoyed watching Dahmer on Netflix because not only did the victims’ families say multiple times that they did not want another show or piece of media that completely falsifies the true grief and pain the victims and their families felt and the factual evidence, but it also completely romanticized the real story (I’d go off even more, but I’ll spare y’all the time LMAO -rana).

Research the following terms related to forensics and crime scene reconstruction:

• Alternative Light Sources | Toxicology | Ballistics
  • Alternative Light Sources- typically used in crime scene investigation and post mortem examinations to identify many forms of evidence. Utilizing ultraviolet light, investigators can identify physiological fluids like semen, urine, and saliva through the fluids' natural fluorescent properties.
  • Toxicology- the analysis of biological samples for the presence of toxins, including drugs. The toxicology report can provide key information as to the type of substances present in an individual and if the amount of those substances is consistent with a therapeutic dosage or is above a harmful level.
  • Ballistics- involves the examination of evidence from firearms that may have been used in a crime. i.e. When a bullet is fired from a gun, the gun leaves microscopic marks on the bullet and cartridge case. These marks are like ballistic fingerprints.
• Bloodstain pattern analysis | Patent vs. Latent print analysis
  • Bloodstain pattern analysis- interpretation of bloodstains at a crime scene in order to recreate the actions that caused the bloodshed. Analysts examine the size, shape, distribution and location of the bloodstains to form opinions about what did or did not happen.
  • Patent vs. Latent print analysis- Patent prints are impressions of prints usually transferred using some type of fluid or chemical, like blood or paint. Latent prints are formed by the natural oils in one's skin and transferred by the friction of touch.
• Forensic entomology | Forensic ecology | Forensic genetics
  • Forensic entomology- study of arthropods, especially insects, associated with crimes and other aspects of the courts and judicial system. Usually involves the identification of insects and other arthropods associated with human remains as an aid to determining the time and place of death.
  • Forensic ecology- the recovery and analysis of human remains, plants, insects, soils and other particulates from scenes of crime ****and can be vital in proving or excluding contact between a suspect and a scene, targeting search areas, establishing a time and place of death and identifying the deceased.
  • Forensic genetics- branch of genetics that deals with the application of genetic knowledge to legal problems and legal proceedings. Forensic genetics is also a branch of forensic medicine which deals more broadly with the application of medical knowledge to legal matters.
• DNA phenotyping | Geolocating with stable isotopes | Cloud forensics
  • DNA phenotyping- the goal of forensic DNA phenotyping is to narrow down the number of potential crime scene trace donors in such cases to a smaller group of persons who most likely have the externally visible characteristics and biogeographic ancestry that were inferred from the crime-scene DNA.
  • Geolocating with stable isotopes- Stable isotope signatures or profiles of physical evidence such as illicit drugs, explosives, or human tissue provide information on source, origin, even sample history not obtainable by traditionally applied analytical techniques of forensic chemistry. For several years, forensic scientists have been able to use isotopes found in human hair as markers that can indicate a region of the country where a person was living because many water supplies have unique isotopic signatures that are captured in hair.
  • Cloud forensics- refers to the use of forensic techniques to investigate cloud environments (i.e. cyber crimes). When unlawful or criminal behavior has occurred using the cloud as a medium, cloud forensics experts use their skills and knowledge to detect the individuals or groups responsible.

When the media can show actual footage of a tragedy or other newsworthy event, they do, often exhaustively. Before photography and cinema, artists had to draw forensic sketches; consider this contemporary recreation of Lincoln's assassination. Today, if they lack real footage, broadcasters can generate animated recreations—for instance, this controversial reconstruction of celebrity golfer Tiger Woods' car crash in 2019. Discuss with your team: can such animations serve an important function in informing the public? What is the difference between animating a news story and reenacting it with live actors? Should all the people featured in reenactments of recent events have to give their consent—and, if so, what if they are no longer alive to give it?

• Animators, or simply courtroom sketch artists, are important figures in informing the public. Oftentimes when mass media is invited in court cases, journalists can twist the public’s perception and views (i.e. the O.J. Simpson trial), the job of courtroom sketch artists is to enable the public to visually reimagine trials in an unbiased manner. Reenacting a news story with live actors could possibly retell the story more realistically compared to the unrealistically funny and Sims-esque Tiger Woods animation. It would be best to at least ask for consent for the people featured in reenactments of recent events or ask consent from their families; if not, they should ensure to only use facts in the reenactment to avoid bias.