What is the most common misconception about forensic science?
On television shows like CSI:, they have criminalists interviewing and arresting people. In real life, criminalists do not do that. In some states we can only use the evidence that has been collected by police officers; in other states there are teams that process crime scenes. The person who collects the evidence may not be the one who actually analyzes it. Each piece of evidence goes to its own specialty: DNA, firearms, drugs, toxicology, trace evidence. On CSI: they get a DNA result back at the crime scene, but in reality you’re lucky to get it back in a year. There are other murders, a lot of cases.
