Why We Love Them
Crime series such as Crime Story and Wiseguy have reached heights of incredible popularity, and there are several reasons thought to be behind this. The most major is that people are interested in general by crime and how crimes are solved, and so shows such as CSI, for instance, which give us a detailed account of the steps that are taken to catch the bad guys really get our interest.
Not only that but they also include the audience as a part of the show, as throughout the duration of the show there are various hints and clues which are given that the audience can attempt to use themselves in order to piece the puzzle together.
Controversy
Although crime series are generally loved by all, there has been some controversy surrounding them, especially recently. For one there has been much debate on whether or not these crime series are playing a role in the increased rate of violence in the real world. It is thought by some experts that because more people are watching violence and crime in these sorts of shows that they are carrying this violence into their own life.
Research on the effects of not only violence in television but in the media in general has been conducted extensively over the past few years in particular, and whether or not exposure to media violence causes increased levels of aggression and violence in young people is really the question of media effects research these days.
Some researchers believe that it is the psychological effects of media violence that end up causing this aggressive type of behavior, while others focus on the ways in which media violence primes or cues pre-existing aggressive thoughts and thus could really not be avoided. There have been various studies and cases conducted on this issue, and yet even with all this controversy surrounding them, crime and other violent programs continue to be incredibly popular worldwide.
This issue is definitely one which should continue to be researched, because if by reducing the violence and crime shown in media we can decrease the amount of violence and crime in the real world, then there is obviously a real goal to work towards here.
