Dead time in class.

• Author: Gross, Jane
• Position: Education

With the popularity of TV shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, forensic-science classes are popping up in hundreds of middle and high schools across the country. Teachers say forensics, the application of science to law, offers a fun way to introduce scientific techniques like DNA analysis and fingerprint identification to students. Critics, however, worry that the classes pander to teen fascination with gore. "I don't question the popularity," says James Alan Fox, a criminal-justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston. "I only question the appropriateness."

The unease is stoked by published reports of...