Defining Criminal Justice, Research Paper Example

Criminal justice, as depicted on television, reflects a wide spectrum of ‘reality’ that often has little to do with the true experiences of criminal justice professionals.  Although speciality channels like HBO do produce programs such as Oz and The Wire which seek to illustrate the myriad of grey areas that exist in police enforcement, the courts, and the correctional system, mainstream television appears to resist such subtleties. Instead, television shows like Cops, Law and Order, CSI, and Prison Break function primarily as entertainment, thus seeking to sensationalize the components of criminal justice so as to best garner the interest of large audiences. Their depictions of criminal justice in simple, black-and-white terms provides the television viewing audience with a distorted view of the real experiences of criminal justice professionals, thus complicating any experiences that individuals might have with the police, the courts, and the prison system.

Police procedurals and other kinds of crime shows are a mainstay of the television industry, primarily because they present a dynamic–the battle between ‘good’ and ‘evil’–which viewers find compelling and can relate, in a fantasy sense, to their own lives. Both COPS and Law and Order straddle the line between reality and fiction in their portrayals of police officers working to solve crimes and enforce the laws of society.  Although COPS uses real footage of police officers at work, the essential ‘reality’ of this show is mediated by the awareness of all participants that they are being filmed.  In his 2009 essay “Crime and Popular Culture:  Theory and Method,” Jeff Ferrell writes that “interviews with police officers indicated that they watch

COPS to see what other departments are doing” (Ferrell, 2009, pg. 5), suggesting that the show has a greater value than mere entertainment.  Despite the influence of the camera, or perhaps because of it, COPS presents a largely positive portrayal of police officers by depicting the lengths that they go to in order to apprehend suspects and assist those in distress.  The long-running show’s depiction of real police officers in the initial stages of the criminal justice process has likely gone a long way in helping viewers to understand the intricacies of the policing profession, as has the NBC program Law and Order.  Unlike the footage-based COPS, Law and Order is a straightforward fiction that creates the illusion of reality by purporting to be “ripped from the headlines” of current crime stories.   It shows both the occurrence of crime, the reaction of uniformed officers, and the investigative efforts of detectives, all of which present a generally positive portrayal of police work.  Like COPS, the show gives its audience a general understanding of how police work is carried out, with its “adaptation of real-life crime stories into fictional storylines [bringing] some crime stories to the forefront of the public arena, often just weeks after they occur” (Collins, 2009, pg. 88).  While both examples aren’t perfect illustrations of  criminal justice work, they do take steps in making the work of police officers much more accessible to the public, thereby raising awareness of the challenging nature of such work.

CSI and The Wire both provide audiences with fictionalized depictions of the intricacies of the court system.  Although neither show makes legal proceedings their primary focus, their storylines demonstrate the difficulties that law enforcement encounters in trying to ensure that the guilty parties they’ve arrested are successfully prosecuted.  HBO’s The Wire tries to be especially diligent when it comes to illustrating the problems in our court system and the manner in which the law can be used to help criminals evade justice.  On The Wire, “characters in the official world [of criminal justice] balance maintenance of law and order with protection of the political, economic, and legal system that they serve” (Collins & Rowe, 2009, pg. 183).  In presenting the components of the court system through every stage, the viewer is given a morally-ambiguous glimpse into a world that is often intimidating to outsiders.  The Wire‘s adherence to ethical grey areas demonstrates that criminal justice professionals can make poor choices just as criminals can sometimes make good ones.  The depiction of reality as it applies to the court system becomes more complicated with CSI, which aims to show the inner-workings of a police forensic team.  Although it isn’t a courtroom drama, much of the evidence gathered by the detectives is used to convict or exonerate defendants.  This high-tech, glamourous world has unfortunately given viewers a false understanding of the lengths that modern science can go to in terms of forensic evidence.  As Deborah Landry writes in “Faux Science and the Social Construction of a Risk Society:  A Burkean Engagement with the CSI Debates,” the program is charged with creating the “CSI Effect” (Landry, 2009, pg. 148) by “increasing jurors’ expectations for forensic evidence at trial in order to secure a conviction; consequently, criminal cases are becoming increasingly difficult for lawyers to successfully prosecute” (Landry, 2009, pg. 149).  This demonstrates that the line between reality and fiction is growing increasingly thin in our media-moderated age.  While CSI occasionally shows faults in the legal system, it is never the scientific evidence that is to blame, and is almost always attributed to human error.

The correctional system is a less popular genre within crime shows, perhaps because it is the most difficult to glamorize.  The television shows Oz and Prison Break demonstrate the diametric opposite presentations that are possible within this sub-genre.  As much as it is possible to make prison seem appealing, Prison Break accomplishes this by utilizing cliche and elements of narrative fantasy in order to depict the majority of correctional system employees as mindless brutes.  It is a morally black-and-white world, in contrast to Oz‘s Em City, a prison unit that strives to be as realistic as possible within the confines of television.  Following a series of characters through their initial incarceration over a period of several years, Oz illustrates Rowe and Collins’ assertion that “virtually every fictional narrative […] is about power” (Rowe & Collins, 2009, pg. 183).  The power dynamics between prisoners and prison staff demonstrates that neither group is entirely good or bad; indeed, each is trying only to survive in a harsh environment given the tools at their disposal.

Television depictions of the police, the courts, and the correctional system are only faint fascimiliesof the reality of the criminal justice system.  Despite this, audiences are given the illusion of being knowledgeable of the ways in which these elements operate.  This is positive, in that it makes aspects of the criminal justice system more accessible to the viewing public.  However, it also complicates matters by providing viewers with a fictional, sensationalized portrayal of a these vital social systems.

References

Collins, M.C. (2009).  Ripped from the headlines: The use of real crime in Law & Order. Journal of the Institute of Justice & International Studies, 9, 88-97.

Ferrell, J. (2009).  Crime and popular culture:  Theory and method. Journal of the Institute of Justice & International Studies, 9, 1-10.

Landry, D. (2009). Faux science and the social construction of a risk society:  A Burkean engagement with the CSI debates. Journal of the Institute of Justice & International Studies, 9, 145-57.

Rowe, D. & Collins M.C. (2009). Power Wire: Understanding the depiction of power in TV drama. Journal of the Institute of Justice & International Studies, 9, 182-97.