Is crime scene investigation fake

Answer 1

No - not at all. Most of the techniques are valid - although often tainted a little for dramatic benefit. I wish that I could have gone to a crime scene and had the DNA results back that afternoon! Also the costs of most of the scientific techniques are prohibitive for everyday crimes. If your house gets burglarized, don't expect the full force of a CSI team to employed to find the bad guy that took your DVD. CSI and similar programs have completely changed victim and jury expectations in the ten years or so since I became a CSI. Sadly we rarely drive from the scene and go to pick up the bad guy! If only we could solve every major crime in 45 minutes - and even get three commercial breaks too! Most of the chemical tests that you see are real - like the use of Luminol; most of the physical tests are real - like blood splatter and bullet trajectories; most of the technologies are real - like machines that sample chemicals or air; .... but the producers invoke some artistic license to make the programmes more interesting and exciting - waiting three weeks is not as much fun as a machine that spits out the right answer in seconds!