Information, Communication & Society

The New Spectacle of Crime
Gareth Palmer

Abstract: Over the past twenty years television has undergone radical changes in its technological base and its economic infrastructure. As one of the central genres of television, documentary has made important contributions to the public sphere. However, it is experiencing the changes to television as a threat to its ability to signify the real and function as a public service. This paper looks at the new breed of documentaries on crime as a response to this crisis. British and American programmes are discussed including Cops, LAPD, Crimewatch UK and Crimebeat. These documentaries are successful brands whose popularity is part of the evolving debate on programme quality, now informed by the logic of the market. In the analysis particular attention is paid to the ways in which new technologies are demonstrated which excite a double measure of fear and comfort in the citizen who is defined as law-abiding and a good consumer. Central to this analysis are the performances of the police, who are seen both as individuals reaching out to the community and as agents of powerful, potentially dehumanizing technologies. In these documentaries the city is depicted as a dark and dangerous place, tipping into chaos only to be returned to order by the work of the police. These programmes explicitly request the cooperation of the public to extend the work of policing the community. Signs of resistance are considered as evidence that individuals can still evolve strategies which resist those who seek to bind them to the law. We conclude by discussing the need to understand such programmes as important depictions of the fluid movement of power.