With over twenty years experience, Karen T. Taylor is CSI’s regular forensic art consultant. Delve into this exclusive interview on the CSI website, then find out more in issue three of CSI: The Official DVD Collection.

What methods are used to help identify bodies?
There’s what I call ‘post-mortem drawing’ for the cases in which the body is intact enough for the artist to view crime scene photos or see the body at the morgue.
Facial reconstruction comes into play if the remains of a body are skeletal. This can be 2D, 3D or electronically done. There are slightly different approaches in different parts of the world. The American method method or tissue depth approach, goes back to my teacher, Betty Pat Gatliff, who started the method in the 1960s as a way of identifying plane crash victims. It involves gluing tissue depth markers directly onto the skull and using a schematic of the muscles to build the face based on clues their attachments have left on the bones. I am best known for the 2D or drawn method, which I developed in the mid 1980s.
When doing this, the artist has to protect themselves in a health sense. Hepatitis is the big risk. You have to be sure everything’s properly cleaned, but working directly on the skull is far faster than having the extra step of casting the skull, which is pretty labour intensive.

How did you get involved with CSI?
I was contacted before the first show aired, so I’ve been on board from day one. I feel a real kinship with the show and have developed some great friendships. I was contacted by David Berman (who works as a researcher and plays coroner’s assistant, David Phillips). He is the most wonderful guy. It’s because of his demeanour with me on the phone on that first call that I agreed to help. I hadn’t heard of CSI. No-one had at that time! I just liked David Berman and I felt he was very sincere and intelligent and a decent young man. It was really down to his approach and his genuine kindness.

It must be nice to feel you are raising the profile of forensic art.
There is an interest in forensic science due to the Discovery Channel, but primarily it’s due to CSI that there are teaching programs popping up all over the US both in high schools and at universities. Educators are playing up to that interest because kids are interested in science in a way they haven’t been for a long time. It has been an amazing by-product of the show that I think is particularly wonderful. Though we all understand that not every child who wants to be a CSI can be, it is still a good thing to slip in that hard science training. They want to learn biology, they want to learn chemistry and physics if it’s presented to them in a format with a little CSI twist. There are bigger things they’re learning, like critical thinking, pattern recognition issues – those very wise teachers are slipping in lots of important material. That is a whole phenomenon that’s occurring due to CSI.

How do you think CSI compares with real forensics?
People tease about CSI, say ‘Oh they can do anything in less than an hour’, but they are intriguing stories and it is Hollywood – they do have to compress things. Take it for what it is. I watch with interest how the various forensic specialists at conferences comment about the show. Some like to be critical and others appreciate the good things. It’s human nature.

Find out more about Karen’s work by visiting www.karenttaylor.com