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The following is the third in a series of essays written in response to the media analysis assignment described in the January 28, 2000 article on this topic page. Colorado State University student Tara Egemo examines Law and Order's resistance to "the cultural stigma that the law is held in the hands of incompetent buffoons."
Americans are becoming less and less trusting in the law and enforcers of the law. More and more Americans invest in high-tech security systems and whole housing developments are hidden away in gated communities. People are afraid, and perpetuating that fear is the level of incompetence many people believe exists in the criminal justice system. I believe these are some of the reasons why law dramas are so popular among viewers. Among these dramas is Law and Order, a drama which shows viewers the lengthy and tedious processes that must occur in executing the law, from the arrest to the trial. Law and Order tries to resist the cultural stigma that the law is held in the hands of incompetent buffoons. In doing this Law and Order also tries to reassure viewers that the criminal justice system is solid. However, nothing can change the fact that the criminal justice system is composed of multiple human components. And as we know humans make mistakes we are not perfect. Therefore, we should be more forgiving in our judgements of the legal system. First, Law and Order takes the viewer through the steps of the legal process. They begin at the crime scene where the forensics team is gathering the evidence. With gloved hands the scientists carefully bag each piece of evidence. This is an area viewers are very interested in as this was a highly publicized and criticized part of the O.J. Simpson trial. As it came out in the trial this part of the investigation was botched badly and was a key element in the acquittal of O.J., the general public was left shell-shocked that these highly trained forensic scientists could be so messy and unprofessional in their gathering of crime scene evidence. Then the show leads the viewers through the process of identifying the victim and searching for suspects. It gives television viewers a different perspective. Normally, an average American doesn't know all the tedious procedures that a criminal investigation covers. It helps viewers see how many people interact and how something can go wrong even if one member of the system believes they are acting in the right. An example from an episode portraying this is when an officer calls a judge for a warrant to search a suspect's apartment. The judge issues the search warrant and the officers find incriminating evidence. At the lab the evidence found in the suspect's possession matched that found at the crime scene. In court a different judge from the one who issued the search warrant throws the evidence out. He ruled that the judge had given the warrant without sufficient cause for a warrant. This in turn made the district attorney's case so weak it was completely tossed out of court. This episode shows how human components can overlap and mess each other up. It shows that most of the system was working well, but just one part went haywire and then the whole system looks as though it failed. The failure of the system was not because of incompetence, but because of the different views of judges.
The copyright of the article Critical Media Analysis of "Law and Order" in Media Literacy is owned by Kim Imdieke. Permission to republish Critical Media Analysis of "Law and Order" in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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