(Fishman & Cavender, 1998) To some degree this, as well as the fictional license many "reality" and "reality based" programs take with technology applications put a great deal of pressure on real law enforcement and force public scrutiny that many find unwelcome. (Arcuril, 1977) The challenge is then placed squarely on law enforcement as well as their support systems, like crime scene investigators (usually for legal reasons a completely separate entity), to resolve crime in hours rather than days, months or years. Most people who have been victims of crime are fundamentally aware that these images are functionally unrealistic, and yet they and others are still building a case, through viewership for the value and continued desire for such programming. The visual imagery, possible through technology has also challenged the public to learn to stomach, and even covet more and more Technicolor representations of "reality." Where Perry Mason utilized static almost still shot technology and music for most dramatic views, Modern television utilizes almost more than real visual imagery and standards, just short of three dimensional.

This is especially true regarding the heinous crime of murder, which has received international focus and has created...

Murder is in fact the most viewed and discussed topic in all these types of programs, no matter the real situations. (Fishman & Cavender, 1998, p. 224) Police officers and others are expected through dramatic license and reality programming to have and use a boundless variety of intelligences that are often very hard won or simply not present in reality to resolve murders as rapidly as possible. There may be a reverse argument that claims that the fictional and almost fictional representations of technology and police intelligence that are illuminated for the public in the television crime genre has spurned greater advances than would otherwise be possible in police investigations and yet jurisprudence has not changed, and in fact is arguably more strict than ever before creating a massive social conundrum.
Resources

Arcuril, A.F. (1977). You Can't Take Fingerprints Off Water: Police Officers' Views Toward "Cop" Television Shows. Human Relations, 30 (3), 237-247.

Fishman, M., & Cavender, G. (1998). Mark Fishman, Gray Cavender. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.

Surette, R., & Otto, C. (2002). Journal of Criminal…