Posted: April 13th, 2023

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 1

Crime Shows on Television

Kevin Verdugo

Saint Peters University

2641 Kennedy Blvd

Jersey City, NJ 07306

Kverdugo18@saintpeters.edu

Abstract

While television is an historically-recent cultural phenomenon, it has become the most influential part of society. In television, crime drama is an popular genre. Crime drama is part and parcel of this cultural behemoth, one that exerts a clear impact on the psyche of the observer. From studies and common knowledge, we know that the majority of people in the United States learn about the criminal justice system through their observation of crime dramas.

For this present study, we watched 80 hours of television crime dramas, consisting of 16 different shows and various seasons and episodes. We observed the portrayal of crime categories—meaning which particular crimes were most often depicted. We also observed the variables of age, gender, and race of both victims and alleged perpetrators. Using SPSS software, we ran descriptives and t-tests to determine percentages portrayed of these demographics. We further compared them to actual crime statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Because so many Americans obtain their knowledge of the criminal justice system through consumption of entertainment media, how the demographics are portrayed can have profound effects on public policy.

Fill in an intro for this entire paper here do it in this section

Methods

In this study we watched 80 hours of television crime dramas–consisting of 16 different shows and various seasons and episodes. We observed the portrayal of crime categories—meaning which particular crimes were most often depicted. We also observed the variables of age, gender, and race of both victims and alleged perpetrators. Using SPSS software, we ran descriptives and t-tests to determine percentages portrayed of these demographics. We then compared our results to actual statistics collected by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.

H1: White women are more likely to be portrayed as victims than is revealed by actual crime statistics

H2: Offenders are mostly portrayed as young males who are members of minority groups

H3: Homicide is the crime most often depicted

H4: Law enforcement officials are most often portrayed as honest and non-abusive

Televisions (TV) are currently a household favorite in billions of homes globally. However, virtually nobody knew what TVs were about a century ago. For instance, only a handful of American households owned TVs as late as 1947. The groundbreaking technology managed to turn from a niche invention based on the mechanical TVs between the early 1800s and early 1900s to a living room mainstay technology beginning with the invention of the first electronic TV in 1927 (Hur, 2016). The early efforts of mechanical TV inventors like Charles Francis Jenkins (American), John Logie Baird (Scottish), A.A. Campbell-Swinton (English), Paul Gottlieb Nipkow (German), and Boris Rosing (Russian), between the early 1800s and 1920s ultimately led to the world’s first electrical TV’s creation in 1927 by Philo Taylor Farnsworth. The mechanical televisions were extremely rudimentary and obsolete compared to electronic televisions, and by 1934, all mechanical TVs had been transformed into electronic ones (Stephens, 1998). The development and advancements in TV system technology have since occurred at a phenomenal rate, giving rise to color TVs, 3D TVs, flat-screen TVs, HDTVs, smart TVs, Android TVs, online TVs, and other broadcasting technologies have all wholly transformed the traditional TVs’ future. Furthermore, modern TV programming has been completely revolutionized, thanks to the creation of diverse content for a diverse pool of audiences. However, TVs’ history cannot be adequately explored in isolation from the history of TV crime shows (VanArendonk, 2019). Therefore, this essay will explore the history of crime shows on TVs and discuss the racial inequality and discrimination when it comes to the use of white male characters as main characters and portrayals of African Americans and other people of color as offenders, and ultimately, the recent changes in portrayals of nonwhites on TV crime shows.

Crime shows have become a popular part of TV show programming over the last seven centuries. The first crime shows to be aired on TV was TeleCrime (later known as TeleCrimes in 1946), aired in the United Kingdom (UK) by BBC between 1938 and 1939 (Guinness World Records Limited, 2021). The whodunit crime drama showed the viewer enough evidence to solve the crime themselves, all seventeen episodes written by Mileson Horton. In the US, perhaps the first popular crime show was Man Against Crime, which CBS started being broadcasting in 1949 (VanArendonk, 2019). Since then, crime shows have become an essential part of favorite TV programs for billions of TV viewers worldwide. Given this situation, the mass media currently defines the criminal justice system’s public image and its agents, including corrections, courts, prosecutors, and police, by acting as crime coverage’s gatekeepers (Kania & Walsh, 1993). News media and fictional storylines reinforce one another by covering crime as the immediate public threat that needs to be rooted out.

However, the history of crime shows on television has been ruined with distortions, controversies, and racial and gender discriminations and disparities. Media bias, especially in crime TV genres, is deeply influenced by and significantly contributes to racism, discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes in our society (Kulaszewicz, 2015). For instance, crime shows on TV predominantly portray white males as main characters and nonwhite males as offenders. Durham et al. (1995) The form and content of crime media significantly impacts the relationship between media exposure and crime beliefs in the society; and that media often portrays a severely distorted crime image. Additionally, according to a recent report titled Normalizing Injustice, a study showing how scripted crime show on TV represents the criminal justice system conducted between 2017 and 2018 season, the crime TV genre advanced debunked crime perspectives, including distorted representations about women, blacks, and other people of color; and also often falsely presents law enforcers as heroes (Color of Change, Hollywood, 2020). The research survey analyzed 353 crime show episodes. Additionally, the study also identified each series’ shooting locations and the military, police, and other consultants. The findings determined that the shows rendered racism invisible, dismissed any form of police accountability, and made racist, destructive, and illegal practices within the criminal justice system seem necessary, justifiable, acceptable, and heroic (Evelyn, 2020). Furthermore, it also determined the lack of racial nondiversity in the genre, including that all the showrunners, writers, and creators were nearly all white.

Similarly, most of the crime shows on TVs predominantly portray white males as main characters and African Americans as offenders. Even though the phenomenon has increasingly been changing over the recent decades, whitewashing is still persistent in the crime TV genre, where white males are mostly portrayed as the only heroes who can save the world (Wilson, Vongkiatkajorn, & Hao, 2017). Furthermore, the decision to cast white male actors as main actors, even in nonwhite white roles, often comes from the industry gatekeepers, mainly white males (Mullins & Hagan, 2020). Fortunately, there has been a growing pressure on Hollywood to use more nonwhite actors in the leading actor role, partly because nonwhites currently represent an increasingly larger section of these shows’ audience (Julious, 2015). Comparatively, most African American and nonwhite actors are often downgraded to less significant and supportive roles and are often portrayed as criminals. Futhermore, most scholars currently share the perspective that there exists a clear causal story linking media representations of blacks to real-world outcomes (Topos Partnership, 2011). The findings in these researches often show that all media forms collectively present a distorted view of African American males’ reality and lives based on several reasons. Consequently, the media consumptions often negatively impact the public’s attitudes and understanding about black males, ultimately resulting in them experiencing negative real-world consequences.

Essentially, the distorted representations of the role of white and nonwhite actors in crime TV shows may have their roots in the deeply racialized and gendered history of the US (Topos Partnership, 2011). One aspect of this history is that whites (males) were more superior to black males. Representing white males as main actors (often police officers who use any means to emerge as heroes in these stories) and blacks as offenders significantly reinforces this racialized system’s opinions. Blacks are often underrepresented in the media. When they feature in areas like video games, news commentary and analysis, and in roles of technical experts and computer users in TV commercials; they are often portrayed as active and playable things, gangsters and street people, and also rarely appear as capable, successful, competent members of materially-wealthy families and businesses. Furthermore, Entman & Rojecki (2000: p. 69) even when blacks are represented to be sympathetic and competent characters, they are mostly portrayed to be non-relatable figures, and these black characters often lack visible family names compared to white characters.

Comparatively, most of these crime TV shows exaggerate negative associations of Black characters. For example, African American male actors are usually portrayed in crime shows as more threatening criminals than white males portrayed as criminals. Generally, whereas blacks are often portrayed more as violent crime offenders, they are often less likely to be represented in the more sympathetic and/ or heroic roles like law enforcement or as victims (Entman & Gross, 2008: p. 98). The same negative portrayal of blacks is also systematically perpetuated in the entertainment media. For instance, most of these media generally and disproportionally overrepresented black males as both violence perpetrators and victims, compared to whites. According to Rich et al. (1998), most entertainment media disproportionately portray black males as aggressive and white females as victims. In recent decades, crime TV genre creators have acknowledged the predominantly negative portrayal of blacks and disproportionately high positive portrayal of whites. Consequently, many crime shows have begun using an increased number of blacks and other nonwhites as main characters, thanks to the increasing number of nonwhite viewers for these shows (Julious, 2015). However, such initiatives are yet to ensure equality, and much still needs to be done to correct the damage.

In conclusion, televisions have become an essential part of any American household for many reasons, primarily for information and entertainment. Many Americans watch crime shows through their televisions. However, however much important TV has become for most people, there is still a substantial degree of racial and gender disparity regarding the use and portrayal of actors. Generally, white male actors are often portrayed as heroic main actors, whereas blacks and other nonwhites are often disproportionally associated with negative imagery, including being linked with crime. Although producers of these shows have begun to correct these discriminate portrayals, equality is yet to be attained.

Data

The following tables, 1-7, illustrate the results from watching four segments of “Dexter,” an episodic television crime drama.

([Here is where you put your data tables you already made and handed-in]

Qualitative Data

During the observation of the four segments of “_______ _______,” we saw the following treatments of police officers, etc.

Here is your results section. Table 16 is really big, so you can make it smaller if you desire.

Now you have absolutely everything to write the discussion section and assemble this paper.

Results

We observed 80 hours of crime-genre television shows. The following tables (8-18) include aggregated data from descriptive tests and percentages of the variables “type of crime,” “age, gender, and race of the victims portrayed,” and “age, gender, and race of the alleged perpetrators, from all 80 hours. Additional statistics and tables from the Bureau of Justice Statistics are included, in order to make comparisons.

Table 8. Crime events portrayed

TYPE OF CRIME

DRUG SMUGGLING

7

DRUG DISTRIBUTION

6

DRUG USE

1

BRIBERY

5

EXTORTION

4

SEXUAL ASSAULT

20

HOMICIDE

78

KIDNAPPING

21

ANIMAL CRUELTY

1

TERRORISM

10

ROBBERY

9

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

3

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT

11

ARSON

2

BURGLARY

1

SERIAL BOMBER

2

HIJACKING A PLANE

1

FORGERY

2

THEFT

14

TRAFFICKING

1

FALSE IMPRISONMENT

1

SOLICITATION OF A PROSTITUTE

1

SOLICITATION OF 1ST DEGREE MURDER

1

CREDIT CARD FRAUD

4

EVIDENCE TAMPERING

1

ATTEMPTED MURDER

1

HACKING

5

HIJACKING A TRUCK

1

RECKLESS DRIVING

1

FIREARMS TRAFFICKING

17

TOTAL:

231

Table 9. Approximate Age of Victims Portrayed

AGE OF VICTIM

UNDER 18

19-30

31-45

46-65

OVER 65

45

40

64

31

1

Table 10. Gender of Victims Portrayed

GENDER OF VICTIM

FEMALE

MALE

90

79

Table 11. Race of Victims Portrayed

RACE OF VICTIM

BLACK

HISPANIC

OTHER

WHITE

9

70

7

136

Table 12. Approximate Age of Alleged Perpetrators

AGE OF PERPETRATOR

UNDER 18

19-30

31-45

46-65

OVER 65

9

29

25

6

4

Table 13. Gender of Alleged Perpetrators

GENDER OF PERPETRATOR

FEMALE

MALE

15

72

Table 14. Race of Alleged Perpetrators

RACE OF VICTIM

BLACK

HISPANIC

OTHER

WHITE

14

9

2

54

Table 15. Comparison of top five crimes portrayed to actual top five arrest categories

Top Five Crimes Portrayed(a)

Top Five Arrest Categories

(males)(b)

Top Five Arrest Categories

(females)(b)

(1)

HOMICIDE

DRUG ABUSE VIOLATIONS

LARCENY-THEFT

(2)

KIDNAPPING

DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE

OTHER ASSAULTS

(3)

RAPE

OTHER ASSAULTS

DRUG ABUSE VIOLATIONS

(4)

DRUG SMUGGLING

LARCENY-THEFT

DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE

(5)

EXTORTION

DISORDERLY CONDUCT

DISORDERLY CONDUCT

aOur data did not differentiate between crimes committed by females versus those committed by males

bBureau of Justice Statistics, 2014

cFor females, “larceny-theft” is usually shoplifting

Table 16. Violent victimization reported to police by race in the U.S., 2012-2015 versus victimization from our crime drama data sample.

Race of victim and offender

Average annual number

Percent

Total violent victimizations

5,833,800

100%

White Victims

3,679,410

63%

Black Victims

850,720

14%

Hispanic Victims

846,520

14%

Other

198,320

3%

White Victim

White Offender

2,081,520

56.6%

Black Offender

540,350

14.7%

Hispanic Offender

406,450

11%

Other Offender

1.7%

Black Victim

White Offender

92,810

10.9%

Black Offender

537,470

63.2%

Hispanic Offender

55,790

6.6%

Other Offender

0.5%

Hispanic Victim

White Offender

169,04

20%

Black Offender

173,120

20.5%

Hispanic Offender

341,420

40.3%

Other Offender

2.5%

Other Victim

White Offender

29.6%

Black Offender

18.9%

Hispanic Offender

9.7%

Other Offender

17.5%

CDS White

Total: 39

57.3%

CDS Black

Total: 6

8.82%

CDS Hispanic

Total: 14

20.5%

CDS Other

Total: 9

13.2%

a For our crime data sample, only race of victim is included

bEstimate will not sum to total, because “people of two or more races” were included in the BJS statistics, unlike in our crime drama data sample

c Includes rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault

d Only percentages were included with “other”

Table 17. Prevalence of victimization by age and gender, 2014

Victim’s Demographic Characteristics

2014

Total

2,948,540

Sex

Female

1,451,110

Male

1,497,430

Age

12-17

422,460

18-24

478,740

35-49

650,560

50-64

579,770

65 or older

113,030

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, 2012–2015

Table 18. Arrest rates by gender, 2012

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