I watched the television show Boston Legal last night -- not a bad show as television goes. More interesting to me than one of its plot lines (whether doctors and/or pharmacists in Massachusetts can legally refuse to provide emergency contraception) was that Boston Legal is only one of dozens of law and crime dramas on television these days. At a commercial break, I started a list of present and recent past similar television shows: The Practice, Law and Order (in its seemingly infinite incarnations), NYPD Blue, LA Law, Conviction (coming soon), Homicide, Bones, Crossing Jordan, Judging Amy, Numb3rs, CSI, Forensic File, Court TV, Cold Case Files. I am sure I have missed many many others. (I’d love a more complete list in the comments.)
What does this tell me? Elayne Rapping in her recent book Law and Justice As Seen on TV says that the increase in crime drama shows reflects that “[w]e are living in an age when people are more and more fearful of crime, and we are seeing harsher penalties for criminals … People want vengeance, not rehabilitation." As so many of these shows are about violent crimes and the investigation (and not the due process) that the victims and accused endure, in my cynical moments I agree with Professor Rapping. In my less cynical moments, however, I wonder if the increase in crime and legal drama suggests (is there an increase, or am I just more aware of the shows these days?) a heightened awareness of – perhaps even vicarious participation in – the justice system. To be sure, the genre of the courtroom drama is as old as film, and some of the first successful television serials were of the mystery/crime genre, but can we say that now, in 2006, the United States is producing (and exporting) more legal fictions than ever before – either touting constitutional norms or, indeed, their violation in the name of victim’s rights (as is fairly the case with NYPD Blue or Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit). Richard Sherwin, in his book When Law Goes Pop bemoans the popular cultural turn in law because, among other things, he thinks it undermines the authority of the legal system as something that stands apart, that promises virtue and blind justice. I have written elsewhere that I disagree with this argument, although I admire Professor Sherwin for making it so forcefully and for courageously forging what has become a thriving interdiscipline of law and popular cultural studies. I disagree becaus I think most people know the difference between television drama and real life drama, between representations of crime and legal process on television and the unfortunate experience of crime and litigation in real life. And as that is the case, the television fantasies are just that, albeit with a very satisfying narrative climax (vengeance and justice). Having a judge or a jury tell you (as the audience qua the protagonist of the show) that you were hurt and should be compensated, that the defendant was wrong and society will punish him, is deeply satisfying. The catharsis is enough to reproduce these shows over and over. But is there more? Is there truly a cultural turn going on that should be accounted for, see Rapping and Sherwin, and if so, what does it mean?
As a law student now and as a microbiology major as an undergrad, I have a lot of sophomoric opinions about the stuff on TV. At the end of the day I think it’s a mixed bag. Shows like CSI are awful because they create juries that believe that all crime labs operate in some kind of universe similar to the CSI lab (read: not so). I have heard from a criminalist-friend that juries now have ridiculous expectations when it comes to forensic evidence. (This is just what I’ve been told.) On the flipside, CSI gets people to think about science, even if it is in a wildly inaccurate and dramatized way.
I feel the similarly but less passionately about law shows, mostly because I find them annoying, partly because I don’t know much about the law. Though Boston Legal might be a travesty in more than one way, the show does have the same ripped from the headlines method as Law and Order and I know firsthand that it does provoke some meaningful conversation in American living rooms.
The way I see it, we live in a country where 1/5 Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind04/c7/fig07-06.htm). Though TV is often atrociously unrealistic and potentially harmful to science and the law, it has its virtues. I can’t complain too vehemently until I can come up with (1), a Law and Order way of explaining the Frye evidentiary test and (2) an exciting CSI way of teaching the central dogma of microbiology. And after all, it's entertainment.
Posted by: karen | February 15, 2006 at 09:26 PM
"I think most people know the difference between television drama and real life drama...." But knowing and behaving as if one knows are different phenomena. If you ask us if CSI is "real," we're tipped off to the gist of the question and we answer accordingly. Nevertheless, we don't run around rigorously maintaining a reality/fiction distinction at front-and-center of our conscious lives. When LA Law first aired decades ago, I was working for an LA law firm. I was astonished that anybody would credit the show's verisimilitude. It was, like virtually all television "drama," patently artificial, almost Mannerist in its weirdness. But I suspect that expectations about how the legal system operates have been informed by these shows. Enamored of the stars, and the characters and plots they purvey, we tacitly assume the gestures they model. So the impact isn't on our abstract notions of the effectiveness and justice of the legal system, but on the more concrete apparatus of its conduct.
Posted by: Dean C. Rowan | February 16, 2006 at 09:40 AM
One of the shows you didn't mention is actually centrally concerned with due process, or at least with innocence. A new ABC show called "Injustice" and starring Kyle MacLachlan (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and more recently, Charlotte's first husband on Sex & the City). I'm not sure if the show is getting or has already been canceled, but the show centers on the Justice Project, a high-profile, non-profit organization made up of hungry young associates who fight to overturn wrongful convictions. It's a nice change to see a show about accused who are actually innocent. If it is ultimately canceled, I suppose it may lend more support to Rapping's thesis.
Posted by: Lindsay | February 16, 2006 at 01:48 PM
You are the second person to mention In Justice to me since I posted on the blog. I definitely have to catch it. I think it is on Friday nights, which is a low rating television night, I gather. Sign of the times or will it be moving up?
Posted by: jsilbey | February 17, 2006 at 07:48 AM
One show that wasn't mentioned that is pretty good is a show on CBS called "Criminal Minds". It has to do with a behavioral unit of the FBI. It isn't bad.
There is also a reality TV show about a Lawyer in Las Vegas named Bucky Buchannan (SP?). I believe the name of the show is "Las Vegas Law".
If I think of anymore I will post them for you.
Posted by: cdunlap | February 18, 2006 at 06:20 AM
Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!
Posted by: writing up dissertation | June 19, 2009 at 12:41 AM
Its so nice to see this good information in your post, I was looking the same which you post on blog, thanks now I have the thing which I was looking for, regards.
Posted by: Dissertation Help | January 27, 2010 at 10:49 PM
Very well written write-up. I literally enjoyed the concept described in the post. Once again nice work indeed.
Posted by: Dissertation Help | January 27, 2010 at 10:54 PM
Our power balance contains 3 sizes, and you can have mixed colors, Most people like them. We are confident that once you had tried our products,you will be completely satisfied with them. Hope to do business with you.
http://www.toptoys2trade.com
Posted by: power balance | October 22, 2010 at 12:59 AM