Running head: THE EFFECTS OF CRIME TELEVISION

The Effects of Violent Television

Crime Drama on The Publics Ability to Cope with Violence
Gregory Hardway
Northern Oklahoma College

THE EFFECTS OF CRIME TELEVISION

When we are presented with a violent situation, we typically use our past experiences to
react or cope with the event. We may use what we have read in books or what we have seen in
todays media or experienced in our own life. In the past, the option to use the media was not yet
established. The public was limited to their immediate environmental experiences. In the
following reviewed article, the author discusses how violent television crime dramas either
protect us or further create an overreaction to violence. This article focuses on the television
drama Law and Order and the relation of characters to the public. I chose this topic because it
conveyed a message to which most television audience members can relate. After reading this
article, I, as an audience member can easily pick out tactics widely used in almost all television
crime dramas. I hope to better understand how crime television could be seen as potential
teaching tool instead of just being labeled as drama.
The author describes the nature of the characters reactions to a win or a loss in the
judicial system. The contradiction between the two reactions are what in fact make the psychic
tension. Between the violence and the empathetic presence of the characters the audience is able
to relate to the dramatic scenes that unfold each episode. When you recall listening to an episode
of Law and Order, there is a short dialogue in every episode: In the criminal justice system, the
people are represented by two separate but equally important groups: the police who investigate
the crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories. The
author discusses how the ending statement relates to how humans respond to an uncomfortable
situation and how Law and Order itself shows a set of guidelines for social disorder. The show
creates these violent scenarios and through the process of the detective work, consistently report
how the bad guy gets spanked by the hand of justice.

THE EFFECTS OF CRIME TELEVISION

The author goes on to say how the characters and the camera angle in the drama have the
biggest impact on the show. She describes the characters in the drama to have a calm, steadiness
to themselves. The characters in the show are shown having less emotion, which the author states
is the reason people have such an attachment to the show. The unrest or the feeling of absent
emotions is said to draw the public in.
The shows dramatic ambiance is reminiscent of stories from television news or
newspapers. According to Lee (2004), Law and Order takes its stories from the news, the public
and the characters are in a sense witnessing the same murders, and furthermore because they are
witnessing them in the same way as detached spectators. (p. 84). She goes on to say how most
people who watch these dramas never experience a crime or a homicide. The characters in the
drama are said to represent us, the public, in the way we should relate to a violent situation.
These characters create a model for situations which rarely occur to the common person.
She goes on to say how most people in public witness their first murder through secondhand accounts or stories on television. Even in the most violent of areas, people who witness
robberies and shootings on their own streets, are still having their first experience with violence
in todays media. Local townspeople are left ignorant and in the dark due to their lack of
relations with first-hand witnesses. That being said, the general public is unable to form a
personal response to violence.
When a show is judged as realistic, we reflect on own experiences to create what we
believe to be an accurate judgment. According to Lee (2004), when we see violence presented
in the newspapers or on television in a coherent manner, we know that coherence is a form
imposed. (p. 85). News or television shows can manipulate audience members emotions and
present information in a way that forces a conditioned response. Viewers skewed perception of

THE EFFECTS OF CRIME TELEVISION

reality including theories, concepts, and ideas are formulated from these television series which
continue to be arbitrated as realistic forms of entertainment. The lack of personal, first-hand
knowledge is the reason we are unable to react with an unconditioned emotional response. The
only way to truly identify reality is to experience it first-hand or come in contact with an event.
Until that time, we will remain safe behind out television screens.
When she talks about how the violence itself can used as sense of protection. According
to Lee (2004), Television both threatens the spectator and stands as a protector-were it not for
televisions, violence might come upon us unexpected. (p. 87). We unconsciously mirror the
characters in the television drama series response the crime. Being able to cope and create this
psychic barrier helps us to better deal with situations in real life. The idea of being able to
participate without actually witnessing the act of violence can open our self and create a
resistance to the uncomforting or awkwardness the acts or scenes being played out in the drama.
When she talks more about the characters, she emphasizes on how the camera angle and
the calming look that the actor creates, soothes us. In a way teaches us how to compose ourselves
if we were really faced with a situation of the same content. She explains how the characters
reaction to a scene of a crime is normal day on the job and the detectives go through their
process of finding the crook with casual talk over the dead body. The camera stays on the actor
long enough to convince the audience the character is kept in a serious demeanor.
The show ends in a scent that shows the verdict of the crime. Lee (2004), I suggest, in
order to maintain the idea that the system represents the people rather than the people serving
the system. (p. 91). On the idea of realism she describes how in a real situation the Judge would
read off the verdict and the jury would read off guilty or not guilty, but in this case it is
described that the jury reads off the verdict. It is very important to keep the relationship with the

THE EFFECTS OF CRIME TELEVISION

viewers to maintain interest. The writers have the power to manipulate the roles in the television
show to gain more interest in the viewers.
Lastly she compares the dynamic theory behind the President Bushs approach to
September, 11 2001. Lee (2004) writes: President George Bush has promoted various military
actions since the terrorist attacks on September 11 by stating, among other things: you are either
with us or you are with the terrorists. (p. 96). She goes on to say how the approach in the
television crime drama has the same promises of protection that the media showed on that day. In
comparison the event that took place 2001 was shown to you as if it were a book or a television
series to capture the audience.

THE EFFECTS OF CRIME TELEVISION

References
Lee, S. (2003). These are our stories: Trauma, Form, and the Screen Phenomenon of Law and
Order. Discourse, 25 1&2, 81-97. Retrieved from
http://muse.jhu.edu.argo.library.okstate.edu/journals/discourse/v025/25.1lee.pdf