Step Seven: Final Draft

Jessica Wade
Mr. Million
English 103
23 April 2008


What are You Watching?




In this day and age it seems like television is becoming more and more realistic. Each day there is another show or movie chronicling the life of a celebrity scandal, criminal, or a top news headline. There is a new fascination with criminal investigations, documentaries about crime, and crime fiction. Researching the pros and cons of crime television makes one realize just how realistic television can negatively affect society. The more technology advances and the more realistic television becomes the more the idea of censorship should be explored. One has to ask themselves in a situation like this, “Do the pros outweigh the cons?” Sure television like this could give prospective criminals crimes to copy and ideas about how the police would go about solving crimes. But television of this type can also inform the public, and discourage people who want to break the law if they know how easy it is to get caught. Exploring both the beneficial and detrimental points of investigative shows, documentaries, and fictional crime dramas is something that has to be done to gauge the amount of this type of television should be censored.




Forms of investigative dramas and documentaries such as, Cold Case Files, American Justice, America’s Most Wanted, The First 48, and Forensic Files, Dateline, 20/20 could be seen as informative and therefore beneficial to the viewer. Since these programs can be useful to the viewer they should not be censored. America’s Most Wanted, a program that is devoted to airing the stories of criminals and missing persons in hopes that their broadcasts will help solve the cases. The program airs reenactments of crimes, descriptions of criminals, and their possible whereabouts. The consistent airings of America’s Most Wanted have assisted in 997 captures of fugitives. The capture of almost 1000 criminals defends the fact that this program and programs similar to this are valuable. One of the most infamous cases that was solved with the help of America’s Most Wanted was the case of John List. List was active in church, had a well paying job, a large family, and lived in an 18 room mansion in Westfield, New Jersey. He was an outwardly happy person, but on the inside this was far from the truth. After losing his job and not being able to pay his bills List devised a plan that he thought would solve his problems. On November 9, 1971 John List systematically murdered five members of his family including his mother, wife, and three teenage children. After cleaning up the crime scene and writing a gruesome confession List went on the run and eluded the police for the next 18 years. Over this 18 year span, his whereabouts still unknown, List assumed a new identity. It wasn’t until May 21, 1989 when America’s Most Wanted stepped in and aired a segment about the fugitive that capturing him became a reality. After airing his segment more than 200 tips came in about the location of John List. In less than two weeks List had been captured. He was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences (amw.com). A capture like this provides evidence that this type of television is a necessary evil and shouldn’t be censored.




Another reason that makes television about crime a necessary evil, is the fact that it is entertaining. Fictional series’ about unlawful behavior such as, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, Law and Order, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Law and Order: Criminal Intent are used solely for entertainment purposes. While, entertainment is not a great justification of the role these shows play in the increase of crime, it is the truth. As long as viewers enjoy watching the programs and people are making money the end of crime television is nowhere in sight. Law and Order and its spinoffs are successful fictional crime dramas. As of 2003 the Law and Orders were in the top 20 of total viewers. In 2003 the shows played for more than twenty-six hours during the week and had more than 88 million viewers, which is more than 30% of the American population (Havrilesky).CSI: Crime Scene Investigation follows close behind Law and Order with 70 million viewers (Shelton). Statistics like these prove just how much the American people find fictional crime drama entertaining. Even though these series’ don’t have a positive influence on crime, they entertain the people. And entertainment is now one of the ultimate goals of television.




Crime television is not all terrible, but it is not all advantageous to the society either. Copycat crimes have increased with a direct correlation to the increase in crime media. So much exposure with crime can be negative when it comes to potential criminals. Not only can investigative programs and fictional crime dramas give ideas to prospective criminals, but they can also affect the minds of jurors (“Learning”). A case where the minds of the criminal and the jurors were affected by television is the trial of Andrea Yates. Yates was a wife and mother of five battling a major depressive disorder. On June 20, 2001 after being in and out of treatment for several days Andrea drowned her five children. Yates only explanation for killing her children was that killing her children would be the only way to save them from eternal damnation. At her trial, Yates pleads not guilty by reason of insanity. During the trial the prosecution presented a witness that stated Yates came up with the idea to drown her children from a recent episode of Law and Order. Because of this testimony the jury found Yates guilty, believing that she had committed a crime copied from television, being completely sane at the time. She was sentenced to life. Three years later at Yates’ appeal her conviction was reviewed following the recant of the witness’ testimony. He later testified that there was no such episode of Law and Order. Andrea Yates now spends the rest of her life in a mental health treatment facility (“The Andrea Yates Story”). The fact that the witness recanted his testimony plays a big role in this case. The jury found Yates’ not to be clinically insane when they heard the testimony stating she had copied a crime from television. For this reason, Yates’ was not sentenced accordingly. The idea of a copycat crime had to play into the minds of the jurors. We will never know how much of Andrea Yates sentence was determined by the testimony of that witness. We will also never really know the affects of television in the minds of the jurors. But it is safe to say that neither was helpful to the jurors in accurately assessing the mental health and conviction of Andrea Yates.




Along with television negatively affecting the mind of the jury, forensic science is becoming more widespread. More advanced forensic science is putting more and more criminals behind bars; it is also releasing the wrongly accused. With so much advertisement of forensic science on the television from different types of programs, it has become harder to convince jurors of a defendant’s guilt if there is no forensic evidence. Programs such as, Forensic Files, Cold Case Files, and American Justice all show the capture and convictions of criminals using forensic evidence. Even though forensics can distort the views of the jury it also releases innocent people and makes the public aware, showing that there are two sides to each story even if one side is not so good.




With the new interest of making real-life unlawful activity into entertainment it is easy to make the connection that these types of television shows have a detrimental effect on crime: increasing the amount of copycat crimes, giving ideas to potential criminals, and affecting the minds of jurors. For these reasons, investigative and fictional television series’ along with documentaries about unlawful behavior could be censored. But, on the other side these shows also inform viewers, perhaps preventing more victims than creating criminals. So now that the question is no longer, “Should crime television be censored?” The question is now, “When and how much television about illegal activity should be censored?” No matter how much we censor the entertaining pieces of crime television there will always be the news, and the news can’t be censored.


Works Cited


America’s Most Wanted. 15 Apr. 2008< http://www.amw.com/>


Havrilesky, Heather.” Murphy’s Law and Order.” Salon.com.15 Apr.2008.19 Mar. 2003 <http://dir.salon.com/ >


“Learning” Criminological Theory.2005 Florida State University. 15 Apr.2008 http://www.criminology/fsu/edu/crimetheory


Shelton, Donald E.”The CSI Effect: Does it Really Exist.” Office of Justice Programs259(2008). 15 Apr.2008< http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/>


“The Andrea Yates Story.” American Justice. A&E Television Network.5 March 2008