The ‘key’ to the crime: Criminal cases and the projection of expectations about forensic DNA technologies in the Portuguese press

Abstract

Forensic cultures are built upon existing knowledge, practices and procedures, but also on collective imaginaries and aspirations. The latter can be inspired by fiction. Television fictional dramas like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation place forensic science at the forefront of criminal investigation. The alleged influence of this genre of fiction has raised concerns about the occurrence of CSI effects that supposedly alter the perceived value and relevance of scientific evidence in American courts. As the Portuguese forensic culture is shaped by inquisitorial procedures and the presumed neutrality of the judicial entities, public controversies over forensic evidence are unlikely. However, media coverage of criminal cases can offer insights into the production of collective representations about forensic science. Drawing from the analysis of five criminal cases that occurred in Portugal (1995–2010), resorted to forensic DNA technologies and were consistently covered by daily newspapers, this chapter argues that the CSI series may contribute to a sort of journalist effect version of the CSI effect. This effect can be observed by recurrent references to the television series as a metaphor for idealised or contrasting scenarios of forensic science, use of DNA technologies and criminal investigation. The uses of the CSI metaphor by the tabloid and the quality press in the context of Portugal can be interpreted through the notion of ‘imagination of the centre’, that is, a Portuguese way of being semi-peripheral insofar as the distance to the ‘centre’ is acknowledged, while projecting collective aspirations to be closer to that centre.