Good Example Of Realistic And Unrealistic Investigative Forensic Works On "And They're Offered" Critical Thinking

This paper discusses the realistic and non-realistic investigative forensic works on CSI Miami Season 7 Episode 13.The title of the episode is "And they're offered". The episode shows both unrealistic and realistic reactions from the actors after Robert Banyon succumbs to a bullet shot. Robert dies while recording and watching the race of horses from his luxurious and private suit. The actors employ unrealistic and realistic actions in a bid to discover the cause of his death and in the end it is unraveled that a cattle bolt gun caused his death. The unrealistic actions show how Horatio unravels the plot that involves the Russian mob that is responsible for fixing races that involve the old nemesis. The episode takes place in Miami during the day and the process of questioning the suspects proofs to be effective because the real murderer is discovered in the end. After Robert is shot, the first officers to arrive at the scene are Tara and Caine. The episode’s synopsis is in the first part of the paper. The Episode Analysis (realistic and realistic actions) is discussed in the second part of the paper and it offers a detailed analysis of non-realistic and realistic actions. The conclusion offers a summary of the paper.
In the process of viewing and recording a horse race from a personal and luxurious suite, an unknown assailant shoots Robert Banyon from the back. Horatio Caine, who is a lieutenant in homicide detective, leads his team of investigators in determining Banyon’s killer. The team collects and analyses evidence to unravel Robert Bnayon’s bizarre murder. The investigators find out that the bolt gun was used to kill Robert Banyon and the weapon is discovered at the horses’ paddock. The detectives find evidence that links Terrace Chase to the murder and they confirm that Terrace Chase had been visited by Wayne Turner, who desired to be Robert’s partner. The vetting of Billy, Gantry Mark’s abandoned son, leads Horatio to Ryan and Horatio connects the whole situation with gambling. Horatio fights off Ivan Sarnoff, the Lord in the Russian Mob, and unearths the issue of race-cheating. A little research Scott’s background shows that he is Backdraft’s original proprietor and he confesses to Horatio and Tripp that Banyon tricked him into selling Backdraft and when he confronted him, Banyon humiliated him; he decided to avenge by shooting him. The detectives link Cocaine to all occurrences in the episode and in the end; Scott is arrested for the murder of Robert because he is guilty of masterminding the whole act.
The first realistic action entails the use of GRIESS Kit that is a Nitrate tester (Kruse, 2010) and the tester helps in determines the presence of Nitrate on the suspect’s hands. Eric uses the kit to test Scott’s hand with the aim of finding positive traces of the gunshot residue and the test turns out to be positive in the end. The positive test offers crucial forensic evidence that Scott is the murder.
The second realistic action entails the use of DABIT tm Kits because the kits are crucial in determining the abuse of drugs by suspects (Klein, 2007).The kits provide evidence that the horses are drugged with cocaine when Eric uses them to examine the debris from the towel that was used to wrap the gun powder. The kits confirm that the debris is from Polytrack that normally replaces soil in the horses’ tracks, however, the use of Polytrack is rampant in UK and not in the USA. Additionally, the kits are used in performing a blood test on Mark with an aim of ascertaining whether he uses cocaine and the negative results lead to the conclusion that the cocaine is used to drug the horses.
The third realistic action evident in the episode is the procedure that actors use to get information from Automated Finger Print Identification System (AFIS). However, the use of this fingerprints is not successful because after Tara processes the suspect’s (Russian)’s fingerprints, she does not get conclusive evidence to point an accusing finger to the Russian. Ryan fails to get the identity of the dead Russian from the AFIS; alternatively, Horatio determines his identity from the immigration database that reveals he is known as Nicholas Brinks, who has links with Ivan Sarnoff who sponsored the dead Russian’s visa.
The process of retrieving the bullet from the victim's head is unrealistic. It is abnormal that the bullet wound at the back of Robert's head has an entrance but lacks an exit. Under normal circumstances, the bullet should have an exit. However, Dr. Price explains that the absence of a bullet and posit in Banyon’s head implies that the man was shot by the bolt gun that is a weapon that is used when killing livestock. The doctor retrieves the bullet very fast and in an easy way. Ordinarily, the process of retrieving the bullet would require sophisticated machines and complicated procedures (Klein, 2007).
The process of collecting evidence in the episode is very unrealistic and impractical. Firstly, Erick’s discovery of the bolt gun in the stables is not practical and it cannot be possible under normal circumstances. Dogs could have been used to sniff the bolt gun under normal circumstances (Helgenberger et al., 2011). Secondly, the binoculars/camera is a crucial source of evidence because it offers details on the jigger that increases the speed of horses. Under normal circumstances, the study of the photos could not offer useful links as to how the increased Banyon’s attention on the horse. Besides, in normal scenarios the police could have ignored the photos because they could not offer useful evidence on the source of the gunshot. Additionally, the detectives narrow down to the murder easily despite the large number of people present at the scene of the crime. Ordinarily, the processes of narrowing down to the prime suspect would call for more interviews and would take a lot of time (Kruse, 2010). However, the speed with which the murder is unearthed is unrealistic and is not possible in the real world.
In summary, this paper has discussed realistic and non-realistic investigative forensic works on CSI Miami Season 7 Episode 13(“And they’re offered”). Robert Banyon succumbs to a bullet shot while he is recording and viewing the horse race from his comfortable and private suit. Scott is arrested for the murder of Robert at the end of the episode because he is guilty of shooting him. The first realistic action entails the use of GRIESS Kit that is a Nitrate tester and the tester ascertains the presence of Nitrate on the suspect's hands. The second realistic action entails the use of DABIT tm Kits- that determine whether the suspects abuse drugs. The third realistic action is the use (AFIS) to get information from the suspects’ fingerprints. The first category of unrealistic action is the processes of gathering evidence in the case and the second unrealistic action is the process of retrieving the bullet from the victim's head. For this reason, the episode has successfully presented both unrealistic and realistic forensic actions from the actors.

References

Helgenberger, M., Eads, G., Fox, J., Szmanda, E., Hall, R. D., Langham, W., & Productions, C. B. S. (2011).CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Klein, D. J. (2007). Latino Masculinities Under the Microscope: Stereotyping and Counterstereotyping on Five Seasons of CSI: Miami. FIU L. Rev., 3, 395.
Kruse, C. (2010). Producing absolute truth: CSI science as wishful thinking. American Anthropologist, 112(1), 79-91.