16. Race, Crime, and Justice in American Crime

Abstract

Criminological analyses of media have long sought to understand how issues of crime and justice are portrayed and the consequences of such portrayals for public knowledge. This chapter examines a three-season series called American Crime, which explicitly focused on crime, victims, the justice system, and race/ethnicity. The purpose of the chapter is to provide an overview and assessment of the ways in which American Crime addresses issues of race, crime, and justice. We discuss four general topics that were evident across the seasons (race/ethnic prejudice, race and the law/authority, social movements and race, and immigration and crime and justice) and provide an analysis of how the portrayals comport with the literature on race, crime, and justice. Overall, the show’s depictions appear consistent with the literature, and likely offer substantial education to the viewer. However, the series could have done more to advance knowledge rather than focus on particular—somewhat rare—events for entertainment purposes.