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Do you believe the law-type shows referred to in the article have done more harm than good in “informing” the public?

I don’t think that “law shows reality or fake” has any malice intent to cause harm.  However, I do think that the CSI effect is real, and it does cause harm on how the jury defines people's guilt. (as in, if there isn’t forensic evidence and all the prosecution has is circumstantial evidence it might be harder to convict) Because just one vote can sway a jury. Because of these shows there people think that DNA and or fingerprints are always left at the crime scene. 

 The other part of the effect is on the technology side. In shows like CSI, they show them processing evidence in the matter of seconds. However in real life, processing any sort of evidence isn’t as fast as they show on the television show. In actuality, it is a slow process and most places send everything off to the state lab. And how the evidence is processed, it’s not as glamorous as it looks.  

With that being said, I do believe that people are more “informed” of their rights, and what evidence to look for in convicting someone. So as it does harm for what evidence is left behind, it also has good points on people being more informed. 

Are there any television shows that you believe do a good job of representing the “real” issues in the criminal justice system? Defend your position.

I don’t think that any crime related shows show real issues in the criminal justice system. Even t.v. Shows like Dateline or 20/20, that portray real life crimes and they do talk to people on both sides of the case, don't show everything. What could have taken days to years to investigate and charge someone with a crime, and try and cram everything into an hour. 

Shows like the First 48, which follows different officers around the U.S. investigating homicides during the first 48 hours after getting notified of the crime. They don’t show everything that is going on, it’s all edited down to fit the same one hour block. 

And it does depend on what the “real issues” are. One of the things that I find in any sort of crime show “real” or fake, is that they don’t show how much paperwork an officer has to do. It's a scene of them at the desk looking at papers and then bam a phone call with exciting news and they leave. Even on a show called Live-PD, they didn’t show them writing reports after traffic stops. However, if they got a ticket or something it would show them writing it. 

However, there is a good T.V. show on Discovery plus called “The mind of a Murderer”. In the show, Dr. Michelle Ward talks to inmates who committed murder, and breaks down and offers insight of what drives people to commit murder. Which often talks about people with mental health problems. Which is a real issue in criminal justice.