‘Due to the graphic nature of this program, viewer discretion is advised.’ Most of us have encountered this warning while watching television at some point. It is typically attached to a brand of reality crime TV that Paul Kaplan and Daniel La Chance call ‘crimesploitation’: spectacles designed to entertain mass audiences by exhibiting ‘real’ criminal behavior and its consequences. This book examines their enduring popularity in American culture. Analyzing the structure and content of several popular crimesploitation shows, including Cops, Dog: The Bounty Hunter, and To Catch a Predator, as well as newer examples like Making a Murderer and Don’t F**K with Cats, Kaplan and La Chance highlight the troubling nature of the genre: though it presents itself as ethical and righteous, its entertainment value hinges upon suffering. Viewers can imagine themselves as deviant and ungovernable like the criminals in the show, thereby escaping a law-abiding lifestyle. Alternatively, they can identify with law enforcement officials, exercising violence, control, and ‘justice’ on criminal others. Crimesploitation offers a sobering look at the depictions of criminals, policing, and punishment in modern America.
Table of Content
1. Humiliation, Inc.: Policing the Criminal on Primetime2. Watching the Night Creatures: Crimesploitation and Boredom
3. Cuffs of Love: Punishment and Redemption in Crimesploitation
4. Middlebrow Crimesploitation
Epilogue: W(h)ither Crimesploitation?
About the author
Paul Kaplan is Professor of Criminal Justice in the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University. He is the author ofMurder Stories: Ideological Narratives in Capital Punishment (Lexington, 2013).
Daniel La Chance is Winship Distinguished Research Professor in History at Emory University. He is the author of
Executing Freedom: The Cultural Life of Capital Punishment in the United States (Chicago, 2016).
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