Even if they haven’t got round to seeing it themselves, most people have at least heard of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, more commonly known as just CSI. This American crime drama TV series, which has been running since 2000, has been named the most watched show in the world a remarkable five times.

While NCIS currently tops the list at this present time – winning the award at the 54th Monte-Carlo TV Festival – there is no doubting that CSI still draws in some huge figures. With an impressive 73.8 million global viewers in 2009, there must be something about the series that ensures its continued widespread appeal.

The Las Vegas-based show has now spawned a number of spin-offs, namely CSI: Miami and CSI: NY, and although the settings may have changed, the basic premise is still the same: to solve crimes by examining the physical evidence collected from the scene. This is achieved by mixing gritty subject matter with a dose of deduction and character-driven drama.

In order to attempt to understand reasons for the popularity of the show, it is necessary to consider the common plot devices and narrative structure. You will find that the trained forensic investigators work all hours of the day (and night), scouring scenes and collecting evidence in a bid to find the missing pieces that allow them to solve the puzzle. Each of the characters likes to work in their own way to solve the crime, with how the team interacts with one another a key component of the show.

CSI has been criticised for its explicit images and level of graphic violence for such a primetime network TV show. It may not be suitable for family viewing, but those who do watch it obviously enjoy its unflinching nature. Despite the often harrowing content shown on CSI, it still manages to have its comedic moments.

The role of the forensic investigator is depicted on the show as one that is exciting and varied. This is obviously a job that many people find interesting, accounting for its substantial worldwide audience. However, it is this portrayal that has been condemned for its lack of realism. Like in British drama series, Silent Witness, characters not only process the crime scene, they also test any evidence found. In reality, this would be entirely inappropriate.

We’ll be going through this aspect in more depth in a future post on uncovering the truth behind the role of a forensic scientist, but suffice to say, those who decide to pursue a career in this area will find many of their day-to-day tasks do not really correlate with what they have seen the forensic investigators doing on CSI.

Even though the show may glorify and exaggerate the role of a forensic scientist, forensics is still a fascinating (highly-scientific) subject and a field that would suit someone with a keen interest in crime scene investigation and how a crime is solved.

Learn how to become a Crime Scene Investigator with our step by step guide

NCC were delighted to be invited to attend the Youth Employment UK (YEUK) Award ceremony at Chelsea Football Club and even more delighted to receive the Award for Youth Friendly SME 2014 sponsored by REED:NCFE which was presented by the Skills Minister, Nick Boles MP.

Tony Smith, NCC Managing Director was first introduced to Laura-Jane Rawlings, CEO of YEUK, approximately two years ago and was heartily impressed by her determination to support young people to achieve their aspirations. NCC immediately signed up to YEUK and has been a member ever since. NCC is a developer and publisher of adult educational learning resources (both paper based and online) which are supplied though a range of sources, including:

-Colleges of Further Education
-Training Providers
-Schools
-Health and Social Care organisations
-Hotels
-Councils
-Individual learners using a home learning methodology.

The national Youth Friendly badge is a free award that is given to individuals and organisations who commit to two forms of “Youth Friendly” behaviour a year. NCC support young people through their engagement of providing work experience and the continued employment of apprentices in areas such as IT, Business Administration and Customer Service. NCC has employed twelve apprentices over recent years, all of which have been offered full time positions at NCC upon completion of their qualifications. NCC have one apprentice currently in training within their IT department and a new Marketing Apprentice will be employed early in the New Year to support development in this key area.

Nick Boles MP said “I am so pleased to be here today to celebrate all the people who go that extra mile to help young people move in to successful careers. For our long-term economic plan to work, it’s vital to build bridges between the world of work and education.”

“That’s why I’m calling employers across the country to follow the lead of those honoured today and take an active role on developing the workforce of the future.”

Tony Smith MD NCC said “To receive an Award from YEUK for our work with young people feels very special, effectively, we are not doing that much different to a great many employers who believe that the current youth talent pool needs an opportunity.”

“As businesses need to diversify, what better a place to look at than those young people who have excellent technology skills and are looking for a break to demonstrate what they can do.”

Brain-training has become an incredibly lucrative business in the past few years with companies like Lumosity, Jungle Memory, Nintendo and CogniFit having created various neuroscientific computer games which parents are using to help their children improve their “Grades, Working Memory, and IQ”. Evidence apparently based on clinical trials, and as claimed by Jungle Memory, specifically mentions that students have even increased their grades from a ‘C’ all the way up to an ‘A’ in a short amount of time.

According to one of the better known online game-developers of brain-training, Lumosity, a few minutes daily can boost your brain power and improve both your focus and your memory. At least that’s what the advertising copy on the computer-based training programmes would suggest. But research teams beg to differ and view the process and result of brain-training as being more theoretical than practical.

The online brain-training phenomena has reached unprecedented levels the world over with 35 million people investing in Lumosity alone which sees its business increasing yearly, having recently hit £16m in revenue with approximately 50,000 downloads of its app.

Online brain-training programmes like Cogmed are now being used in schools throughout the UK. Cogmed training is advertised as being beneficial to all ages, especially to those with attention deficits and memory lapses. The developers of the Cogmed training program state that 8 out of 10 users who complete the training show an improved ability to focus, stick to a task, and minimise distractions.

Many parents have even decided to push their children towards playing brain-training games as opposed to using private tutoring in order to help their children develop their brains, improve memory and patience, and overall concentration.

So why have many researchers not embraced the power of online brain-training programmes and instead, disputed its effectiveness entirely in helping people increase their intelligence, focus and awareness? Based on the findings of a group of qualified psychologists along with a study conducted in 2010 by a neuroscientist, very few benefits were achieved by 11,000 adults who completed a series of training tasks over six weeks to improve their overall skills in various areas including reading, memory, and attention. With the exception of improving results in day-to-day repetitive tasks, no overall improvement in any particular area was achieved.

It was concluded by the psychologists that people who played the online brain-training games were developing skills that helped them to improve at the games themselves due to repetition as opposed to actually displaying any real improvement in overall intelligence including problem-solving, reading ability and comprehension, mathematics, and adapting to different scenarios and situations which require a broader range of intelligence.

Psychologist David Z Hambrick was not at all surprised by the results, having agreed with the findings of other psychologists in that brain-training games may help people improve in the games the more that they play them but doesn’t help them in anything that is of any real significance.

Dr Adam Hampshire, developer of the Cambridge Brain Sciences concept which is a web-based series of tests designed to assess cognitive function, believes that more research is required to be able to fully analyse just how effective brain-training programmes truly are, if at all. Hampshire recently made public his research showing that those who had taken the tests and had done brain-training regularly had not shown any edge as compared to those who did not do brain-training.

Despite research and the questioning of its true effectiveness, this is highly unlikely to deter current product-makers and companies from continuously marketing their brain-training programmes to customers worldwide. Whether purchasers of the products see any noticeable improvement or not in their intelligence and overall senses as the marketing may imply will continuously be up for debate. Rapidly rising revenue and sales in the brain-training industry certainly sees no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Christmas Opening Times

On behalf of everyone at NCC, we wish to send our learners, past, present and future, season’s greetings for a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Our offices will be closed from 12 noon on Thursday 24th December 2014 and re-open on Friday 2nd January 2015. During this time our tutors and administrators will be enjoying the festivities whilst taking a well-earned break and will respond to any queries as soon as they return.

Our out-of-hours telephone service will be available, please feel free to call and leave a message with our out of hours team, or, send any messages by email to [email protected]

Uncovering common myths about forensic science

The reality of a role as a forensic scientist can differ greatly from how it is portrayed on popular crime TV shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – as touched upon in our recent article on the subject. With so many on-screen depictions of what a forensic investigator is supposed to be doing, it can be difficult to separate the truth from the fiction. Our aim is to uncover some of these common myths and hopefully attempt to show that the actual job can indeed be a worthwhile career for someone with the right characteristics.

The impact of forensic DNA on catching criminals

Over the last 15 to 20 years, the commercialisation of advancements in forensic technology has meant that modern testing techniques are now well-publicised. The work of Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys and the discovery of inherited variation in human DNA during the mid-1980s – which allowed the University of Leicester professor to invent DNA fingerprinting – has helped to create a whole new field of forensic DNA. His first case actually managed to exonerate the prime suspect in the murder of two teenagers and ensure an innocent man walked free! The real killer, Colin Pitchfork, was later identified and convicted through the use of DNA fingerprint testing.

However, while some of these case-breaking methods make for great crime scene drama and exciting moments in court rooms, the reality of those professionals carrying out these highly scientific roles on a day-to-day basis can be somewhat different.

How is CSI lacking in realism?

Programmes like CSI can easily exaggerate the truth of these relatively new (within the last 30 years) and accessible techniques and this means that forensic science can easily be misinterpreted when it comes to real life. This has been one of the major criticisms of the show.

In the processing of crime scenes, characters will often be involved in detective work as well as the gathering of scientific evidence, with the activities simplified for TV. Needless to say, this would be considered entirely inappropriate as it would compromise the impartiality of the evidence collected.

It would also be impractical and incredibly time-consuming for one person to carry out the roles of detective, forensic examiner and crime scene examiner. And yes, some detectives may also be registered as crime scene investigators, but the roles would rarely be blurred like it is on TV, as these job roles are far more specialised.

One thing is for sure: no forensic scientist would ever be allowed to speculate as an expert witness when they have just processed the evidence for that particular case.

What about the confusing nature of the legal system?

The United States is awash with procedural dramas like CSI and so it would be understandable to think that the legalities and specifics of the situations depicted on-screen are the same across the board. In reality, American state law is completely different to how it is over here in the United Kingdom and how DNA forensics is applied.

In America, geographical boundaries come into play a lot more, with complicated divisions of jurisdictions affecting who can be contracted to work in certain areas of a locality.

While a British geneticist may be responsible for many of the latest forensic techniques used today, the job specification for forensic investigators across the pond can be poles apart from their British contemporaries. How the law is applied is wholly dependent on the legal system of the country in question.

Is the “CSI effect” just an urban myth?

This so-called “CSI effect”, an alleged phenomenon whereby the real-world expectations of crime victims and jury members have risen due to the influence of CSI, may have no basis on proof, but some still insist that crime scene investigation and DNA testing on this show lead to people expecting instant results from these painstaking techniques (which can take a matter of days or weeks).

Some law enforcement bodies have complained how members of the public may have an inaccurate perception of how crimes are solved, but this does not mean that jurors are demanding more forensic evidence in criminal trials; expecting more from the use of forensic technology, thus diminishing the value of circumstantial evidence.

Whatever the truth in this, many candidates contemplating a career in forensic science are unprepared for what the job really entails.

The forensic scientist job description

We’ve talked a lot about what forensic science isn’t, so it is about time we discussed the job description for a forensic scientist working in the UK. Although it is true to say that the role is predominantly scientific in nature, techniques are also based on judgement, knowledge and experience too.

The area of forensics you specialise in would also have a strong bearing on the type of work you carry out. Biology is the discipline closely related to crimes against people, such as murder, assault and rape. Typical work activities would include DNA testing and the examination of minute contact trace materials, like clothing fibres, hair and blood. However, there is a degree of cross-over between these different areas, so the job can be extremely challenging.

Locard’s exchange principle that “every contact leaves a trace” and that the perpetrator of a crime will bring some form of forensic evidence into the crime scene and leave with something from it is at the heart of the role.

Taking the next step

Since the well-documented OJ Simpson murder trial of 1994 – where the procedures used to collect evidence came under close scrutiny – forensic techniques have really come a long way in such a short space of time. After the calamities of this high-profile case, there is now a strict code of conduct relating to the way in which evidence is collected. There has never been a better time to be entering this field.

If you have a keen interest in the subject and would relish the opportunity to work with law enforcement agencies in determining how and when a crime is committed, by analysing the evidence taken from a crime scene, then there are various Forensic Scientist courses that could help you along this very specific career path.

At NCC Home Learning, we have a selection of forensic science diplomas that can be studied from the comfort of your own home. Get in touch with us today to discuss any of the courses in greater depth, or be sure to check out our course pages for more details.