"I fought the Law and the Law won": The clash between Police and Criminals on prime-time TV

Abstract

The mass media are one of our most important sources of information about the criminal justice system. Television, in particular, is a resource from which people may come to understand what is acceptable, necessary and just. This article presents a content analysis of recent prime-time New Zealand television which draws out implications this may have for social control. The author advances two arguments. First, as a form of narrative cloaked in myth, programmes which deal with crime perform a stabilizing role by making the conventional aspects of the law enforcement system seem obvious. Secondly, they foster social cohesion by ritually enacting shared understandings of permissible behaviour and reinforcing the inevitability of punishment for deviant behaviour.