Crimesploitation

"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 criminal behavior of "real people" and its consequences. This book examines their enduring popularity in American culture.

Situating these programs in the history of the United States at the end of the twentieth century, Kaplan and LaChance show how they helped to build a world in which mass incarceration and rising economic inequality became the "new normal." 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 the suffering of vulnerable others.

A key ingredient to its success is in creating the illusion that the viewer is witnessing unmediated reality, a sense of immersion that also doubles as a vicarious, choose-your-own freedom. Viewers can imagine themselves as being deviant and ungovernable like the criminals in the show, thereby (temporarily) escaping the unfreedom of a law-abiding lifestyle. Alternatively, the show invites the audience to identify with law enforcement officials, through whom they can experience exercising violence, control, and "justice" on criminal others-a way to feel powerful amidst a political and economic powerlessness. Meticulously researched and compellingly argued, Crimesploitation offers a sobering look at the depictions of criminals, policing, and punishment in modern America.