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Now, I'm a fan of paying attention to details. And one of the things I started looking at is what wrist one wears a watch on, and now it's just one of those things I notice. What I've also noticed is that twice in a short time, two crime shows has used certain circumstantial evidence to determine if a person is right- or left-handed. CSI: Miami (the episode was older, but I first saw it recently) got an arrest-warrant for a woman based on the correlation between the knife-wounds having been made by a left-handed person, and her wearing her watch on the right arm. SVU just off the cuff deemed an apparent suicide to be murder based on the victim holding the gun in his right hand, but his cell-phone was clipped onto his belt on the left side, therefore he couldn't have done it himself.
However, having paid attention to this, I've come to the conclusion that there is no conclusive pattern. And I know cop shows make fantastical leaps in logic all the time, but this being something I have paid attention to, it annoys me. (And considering how often I can pick at things that I do know about or pay attention to, I can only imagine what goes on with the stuff I'm not familiar with...)
I'm right-handed, and I've always worn my cell phone on my left side. I wear my watch on my left arm, as do the majority of left-handed people I know. Crime shows, these things are not conclusive. I have a friend who writes with her right and uses the knife with her left. I have another friend who writes with his left, but does everything else, including shoot and cut, with his right. Crime shows, stop acting like you've discovered some great way do discern how people do stuff based on their watch or their cell phone.
And if we look to Hollywood, sure, there are a bunch of left-handed people who wear their watches on the right, Christina Cox, Angie Harmon, Jason Bateman. But there's also a bunch of left-handed people who still wear their watches on the left, Cameron Daddo, Angelina Jolie, Stephanie Zimbalist, Tina Fey, CSI: Miami's own Jonathan Togo. And also, there are right-handed actors who still wear their watches on the right, SVU's own Stephanie March, Teri Hatcher (or at least she used to, she seems to have switched around 2003), Lane Smith, Robert Patrick, Françoise Yip (not confirmed, but I think I have glimpsed her there in the background both with the watch and writing). Not conclusive, crime shows!
[Poll #1367717]
However, having paid attention to this, I've come to the conclusion that there is no conclusive pattern. And I know cop shows make fantastical leaps in logic all the time, but this being something I have paid attention to, it annoys me. (And considering how often I can pick at things that I do know about or pay attention to, I can only imagine what goes on with the stuff I'm not familiar with...)
I'm right-handed, and I've always worn my cell phone on my left side. I wear my watch on my left arm, as do the majority of left-handed people I know. Crime shows, these things are not conclusive. I have a friend who writes with her right and uses the knife with her left. I have another friend who writes with his left, but does everything else, including shoot and cut, with his right. Crime shows, stop acting like you've discovered some great way do discern how people do stuff based on their watch or their cell phone.
And if we look to Hollywood, sure, there are a bunch of left-handed people who wear their watches on the right, Christina Cox, Angie Harmon, Jason Bateman. But there's also a bunch of left-handed people who still wear their watches on the left, Cameron Daddo, Angelina Jolie, Stephanie Zimbalist, Tina Fey, CSI: Miami's own Jonathan Togo. And also, there are right-handed actors who still wear their watches on the right, SVU's own Stephanie March, Teri Hatcher (or at least she used to, she seems to have switched around 2003), Lane Smith, Robert Patrick, Françoise Yip (not confirmed, but I think I have glimpsed her there in the background both with the watch and writing). Not conclusive, crime shows!
[Poll #1367717]
sick
nothing to see here
nothing to see here
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I think solving a case based on such flimsy evidence is a bit of a stretch. But it is tv...
Most people don't notice who is right or left handed on tv shows. I actually noticed right away on Nikki & Nora who was which, but I never noticed it before (in CC's case). I even have it noted on my canon for the show :)
nothing to see here
I notice handedness in pretty ladies, because I notice everything about pretty ladies. :) In CC's case I knew it in that body painting scene in BtC because they're painting with different hands (and N&N is easy, since they wear their guns on different hips). But if there is a pretty lady present, like on Remington Steele I knew from the first episode that Laura was left-handed, but that Murphy also was it? Like 15 episodes later. Same with F/X: The series, I barely noticed Rollie until a scene at the end of the first season where he and Christina are standing side by side and using the same hand to write.
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(TV has been pulling this nonsense since the beginning of television itself, I believe. I can remember watching an episode of Golden Girls when Dorothy apparently "solved" a murder-mystery dinner with theory that it must have been murder because of the relation of the gun to the wristwatch.)
nothing to see here
I haven't figured out why the cell goes on the left. Probably because I often have pens in my right pant-pocket (being a woman and not having shirt-pockets), and I go for a pen about 20 times more often than I go for the phone.
(And yes. I agree with you on the TV-nonsense-pulling. Research, people! It is *so* easy.)
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So I suppose in terms of an investigation it would be helpful - but it would be pretty flimsly evidence in court.
SVU used to be pretty good on their evidence law - I still say my awesome mark for evidence was because I watched so much L & O. :)
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I think what really bothers me is that they never say 'possibly'. They always state with utter certainty that 'IT IS LIKE THIS'. I think the quote went "Who wears their watch on the right wrist? Left-handed people do." I would have been so much more ok with it if they said 'left-handed people might', or something like that. It's all well and good to use any evidence you have, but to treat them like facts when they're merely possibilities annoys the hell out of me. It feels like just another 'look at us how clever we are, we know everything'.
('Alleged/potential/possible' are som of my favourite words. My favourite high school English teacher would instantly fail essays if they claimed facts without proper grounds to do so. I grew up wanting to be like her. :P )
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Wearing a watch on the right hand sounds like grounds for bringing them in for questioning to determine first if they are left-handed, but not arrest them for murder.
Ha ha! You can get an arrest warrant for looking at someone funny over here! Seriously!
Okay, that's harsh. But JPs (justices of the peace - non-legally qualified mostly) can give out search warrants in the state of western australia (can't speak for the other states) so the ol' watch on the left arm things isn't a stretch at all.
The state of New York might be different. Crazy as it sounds, police powers in New York probably aren't as exstensive as they are over here. That pesky bill of rights just gets in the way... But it can be quite a personal thing from judge to judge and can depend a lot on how the cops present the evidence (i do recommendations for environmental notices that are based on similar standards of proof and it's quite interesting how different investigators - who are mostly ex-cops - will present different arguments).
Still, I'm with you. If it had been me issuing a warrant, I would have been highly skeptical and would have said, "so what else have you got?"
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Anyway, dude, so interesting to hear about how it actually works somewhere. I'll admit that I really shouldn't be going on about how they get warrants because I know nothing about it. I've learned it all from crime shows where the lawyers keep going 'no, you need more, you'll never get a judge to sign a warrant based on that flimsy piece of evidence'. I should learn not to do that, but regardless of how much I complain about inaccuracies, there's still a part of me that watches the procedurals and assumes that reality works something like that.
Either this pic is flipped or JD/RP wears his on the right wrist.
Actually, I haven't worn one since my watch broke when we were waiting in the SNL line in NYC. But when I did, it was on my left wrist and I'm right-handed.
Huh. I have no Reyes icon. That's messed up.
Yep, RP does wear his watch on the right. A little research quickly garnered several more pictures of him with his watch on the right. He also shoots with his right which most likely (see how I said 'most likely' there, as opposed to took it for circumstantial fact like the shows?) makes him right-handed, but no actual pics of him writing.
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I like how he put the "most" in there, it leaves wiggle room :) And accoring to our poll, it's closer to the truth than the CSI ep!