Cops Consumption of Psychic CSI Concepts from TV

Cops, psychics, and TV cop shows with psychics all figure, if that is the word, into this study:

“Sci., Psi, and CSI: Police Officers and Students’ Paranormal TV Consumption, Real-Life Experience with Paranormal Phenomena, and Perceptions of Psychic Detectives,” Susan H. Sarapin and Glenn G. Sparks, Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, Volume 30, Issue 3, September 2015, pp. 191-203. The authors, at Troy University and Purdue University, explain:

“This study of the CSI effect, separately surveying 416 law-enforcement officers and 307 students, is an inquiry into the effects of paranormal-TV consumption on the respondents’ perceptions of the utility of psychic detectives in actual crime investigations. Grounded on the gratifications/cultivation model of media cultivation theory and in addition to other significant results, the authors found a significant positive relationship between paranormal-TV viewing and belief in psychics’ effectiveness at solving crimes among the sample of police who reported real-life experience with paranormal phenomena.”

(Thanks to Neil Martin for bringing this to our attention.)

Here is co-author Sparks, performing a theramin tribute to the sinking of the Titanic: