Law and Order: Educating the myth of Justice in the crime procedural drama

Description

Law and Order: Educating the myth of Justice in the crime procedural drama

The Law and Order franchise, in all its variations, has been part of the fabric of US television for over 30 years. Intended to show a realistic perspective on the interweaving of the roles of the police and the prosecutors in the criminal justice system, its ubiquity in popular culture makes it a powerful force in the popular conceptualisation of Justice.

This paper intends to make the case that our formulations of the myth of Justice, conceptualised by drawing on works by Georges Sorel (1908) and Jacques Ellul (1973), are initiated, perpetuated, and reinforced by representations in objects of popular culture, using the example of the Law and Order franchise as an archetype of the potential that such dramas may demonstrate to do so. This contributes to two overarching conclusions: first, that popular culture is inherently formative; second, that this formative capacity gives objects of popular culture an educational power of which producers and consumers should remain mindful.

Ellul, J. (1973). Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes. New York: Vintage Books.
Sorel, G. (1908). Réflexions sur la violence. France: Librairie de Pages Libres.

Period	2 May 2024
Event title	Guilty Pleasures: Examining Crime in Popular Culture
Event type	Conference
Location	AustraliaShow on map