Posted: June 4th, 2015

Final Essay

you are to compare at least two television shows and two movies that deal with police work to David Simon’s book. (You cannot use the show Homicide or The Wire since they were both created by the book’s author).

Answer the following questions:

Does the popular culture choices show police work in a realistic manner? What sticks out as different from the book?

Finally, the last part of the essay you are expected to comment on how what we see on television, the movies, the news, and what we read influence our view of the criminal justice system and what the effect of this influence is on the policy that effects the criminal justice system.

Examples of possible shows: Miami Vice, Hill Street Blues, Dragnet, Starsky and Hutch, Barney Miller, Super Troopers, Serpico, Dirty Harry, Lethal Weapon, Colors, Crash, etc.

The paper should be a minimum of two single spaced pages and should use at least two outside resources (other than the material covered in class.) Be sure to include specific examples from each of the four popular culture sources.