Legal dramas, police procedurals, and detective stories revolving around criminal cases tell stories of tragedy and mystery that for many audience members ring close to reality, or so it would seem on the surface. It is thus shocking (though unsurprising) for many a layperson that many of the things that they see on television aren’t always inaccurate to how real investigations and legal proceedings take place in real life.
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| Image source: huffingtonpost.com |
Much of what is shown in criminal investigations in television outside of documentaries are the product of artistic liberties taken by showrunners, skipping over valuable fieldwork and shortening procedures to fit the episodic nature of the program.
Indeed, of all the works of artistic license shown in television shows featuring criminal investigations, the most egregious of all inaccuracies is the timespan of processing evidence. Rarely in real life are cases resolved in a matter of days, and many of the forensic tests shown would take weeks or months at the least. Actual investigations can take years.
Likewise, not all forensic evidence translates into an ironclad case. DNA evidence and fingerprinting, though invaluable to many cases, do not always prove the guilt or innocence of suspects or, for that matter, are applicable to all crimes. Of course, not all crimes would need something as thorough as evidence gathering.
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| Image source: criminaljusticedegreesguide.com |
Criminals do not always make the same mistakes committed by their television counterparts. Ironically, criminals often attempt to try to hide their misdeeds based on what they see on television, to varying degrees of success. And although many criminals are eventually caught by other mistakes, they are usually of a fundamentally different sort from the ones in a crime drama.
Detectives in fiction also seem to have much more clout than their real-life counterparts such as making arrests and examining forensic evidence directly.
An investigator himself, Adam Quirk enjoys his share of both crime fiction and the works of influential criminologists. Visit this LinkedIn page for more on him and his work.
