By Jill King Greenwood
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Nationwide, the number of rape cases going unsolved by police is increasing, and experts blame it on the “CSI effect,” theorizing that rapists are gleaning clues from forensic television shows about how evidence left behind at crime scenes can lead to an arrest.
“These suspects are very cognizant about what they’re doing and what evidence they’re leaving behind,” said Pittsburgh police Sgt. Paul McComb, a 26-year veteran who heads the bureau’s mobile crime unit. “They know, because of all of these television shows, what can be tied to them. Most of them are already very cunning, but CSI and other shows show them how to be better. It’s frustrating as an investigator.
“When the secrets get out about how we solve crimes, the criminals change their habits.”
The experts agree.
According to the FBI, police nationwide cracked 41.3 percent of rape cases in 2005, down from 46.9 percent in 2000, the year of CSI’s debut on CBS, and 51.3 percent a decade ago.
“They’re making their victims shower or bathe,” said former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt. “It gives the criminal with any common sense pause to think ‘Hey, there’s a way to cover my trail or conceal my DNA.’ ”
Over the years, McComb has heard stories from victims about the steps their attackers took in an effort to eliminate evidence.
One rape victim was forced to clean herself with bleach after the assault.
Others said their attackers wore gloves and condoms or made them urinate and shower after the rapes.
Earlier this year, a suspect being questioned about two rapes refused to submit to investigators’ requests for fingerprints, hair, saliva and blood samples. He knew, McComb said, that evidence from a rape scene could be tied to him through DNA and investigators would need a warrant to get the samples they wanted.
The clearance-rate drop nationwide and in Pennsylvania doesn’t hold true in Pittsburgh.
Major Crimes Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki doesn’t know why city police detectives have been able to solve more rape cases, while others cannot.
Not everyone buys into the “CSI” theory.
“Anything is possible, and criminals could be getting smarter, but you don’t get into a life of crime because you’re a genius,” said Max Houck, director of the Forensic Science Initiative at West Virginia University. “I don’t think we can blame it all on the media or what they see on television.”
Pittsburgh police Detective Richard Fox, who has spent the past 13 years in the sex assault unit, said even if evidence from a crime scene can be traced to a suspect, the “CSI effect” often unravels a criminal case after it gets to court.
“Juries are expecting to hear and see all this amazing forensic evidence laid out cleanly for them like it is on TV,” Fox said. “It doesn’t always work that way, and sometimes the case gets lost because of it.”
Ann Emmerling echoed that sentiment.
“It’s not just that they’re leaving less evidence behind at scenes, it’s that when you present that evidence to a jury, they think it should be clear-cut and easy, and wrapped with a bow within an hour, like they see on ‘CSI, " said Emmerling, executive director of the Blackburn Center for Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence in Greensburg, Westmoreland County.
“Television is not reality,” she said.
Whether the “CSI effect” is real or imagined doesn’t matter to McComb. He knows what he’s seen and heard from his years investigating rapes and other crimes.
“The evidence we used to see left behind at scenes isn’t there as much anymore, and some of these suspects will tell you that they figured out how to avoid mistakes because of what they saw on television,” McComb said. “They’re covering their tracks, largely due to what Hollywood shows them.”
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