Crimesploitation: Crime, Punishment, and Pleasure on Reality Television

Crimesploitation is a genre of reality crime TV that presents real criminal behavior and its consequences to entertain mass audiences. This book examines its enduring popularity in American culture, highlighting the troubling nature of the genre. It suggests that viewers can either imagine themselves as deviant and ungovernable like the criminals or identify with law enforcement officials, exercising violence, control, and justice on criminal others.

Format: Hardback
Length: 180 pages
Publication date: 30 May 2022
Publisher: Stanford University Press

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 LaChance 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 LaChance 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.

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 LaChance 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 LaChance 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.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781503613683