TELEVISION CRIME DRAMA
According to one well-known formulation, culture consists of the stories we tell ourselves
about ourselves (Geertz, 1973). The stories provide an interpretative framework through
which we are encouraged to understand various aspects of culture (McCullagh, 2002).
This framework draws upon shared symbols and meanings, and uses these cultural
elements even as it reinforces them. Such stories, then, both refl ect and shape our culture.
Today, these stories are told on television. Television circulates the cultural images through
which we understand aspects of our social world ranging from our own identities to our
concepts of right and wrong (Wilson, 2000; Wittebols, 2004; Wykes and Gunter, 2005).
Since television’s inception, one of its most prevalent genres has been the crime
drama (Mawby, 2004). Crime dramas provide interpretative perspectives that shape our
thought, in this case about crime (Jewkes, 2004). Crime dramas are morality plays which
feature struggles between good and evil, between heroes who stand for moral authority
and villains who challenge that authority (Rafter, 2006). The crime genre exhibits stable
elements, for example a focus on crime, usually violent crime, and the quest for justice,