Normalizing Injustice Complete Report

Americans’ perceptions of crime are very much at odds with the reality of crime in America. As just one example: while the crime rate has dropped dramatically over the last 20 years, the number of people who say crime is going up is steadily increasing. These misperceptions are dangerous. Distorting the truth about crime and race turns the public against criminal justice reform and increases the scapegoating of people of color. Does television play a role? Is scripted television essentially a PR machine for the police?

Normalizing Injustice is a first of its kind study of how scripted crime shows represent the criminal justice system. The study analyzed 353 episodes from 26 different scripted series focused on crime from the 2017–2018 season, while also identifying the race and gender of the 41 creators, 27 showrunners and 275 writers behind all 26 series. The report further identified the shooting locations for each series and the police, military or other consultants each series employs for advice.

Normalizing Injustice found that the crime TV genre—the main way that tens of millions of people learn to think about the criminal justice system—advanced debunked ideas about crime, a false hero narrative about law enforcement, and distorted representations about Black people, other people of color and women. These shows rendered racism invisible and dismissed any need for police accountability. They made illegal, destructive and racist practices within the criminal justice system seem acceptable, justifiable and necessary—even heroic. The study found that the genre is also incredibly un-diverse in terms of creators, writers and showrunners: nearly all white.