Thesis Claims 'Law & Order' Harmfully Influences Jurors

Doctoral Thesis Claims ‘Law & Order’ Is Harmfully Influencing Real-Life Jurors

by Adam Buckman | September 10, 2013 at 12:49 PM | Law Order SVU, TV News

Millions of Americans have absorbed an inaccurate impression of the criminal justice system by consuming hour upon hour of “Law & Order” episodes over the years, alleges an academician who studied the situation.

As a result, the academician writes, the original “Law & Order” series and its various spinoffs have negatively influenced potential jurors, who now are prone to assume that criminal-trial defendants are most likely guilty.

The allegations are contained in a doctoral thesis by Ph.D. candidate Adam Shniderman of the department of criminology, law and society at the University of California at Irvine...

http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv...er-is-harmfully-influencing-real-life-jurors/

Really? People need to know the difference between TV and reality.

It actually goes both ways. With shows like L&O, CSI, etc.. ad infinitum, lol, it has been thought that some think defendants are automatically guilty, or the opposite, that some think there must be DNA and a ton of fully forensically tested evidence. Even though none of those that think any of that realize none of that is necessarily the case, or some of it is very fallible.


I think the worst part of it is, yet another view point, it teaches many how to commit crimes and how to commit them in a manner that may leave even less evidence.

Mooooooo

I've often thought about how that show depicts the suspects/defendants' the constitutional rights as these tedious and ill conceived rules that serve no purpose but to be exploited by guilty murderers and rapists trying to beat a rap. It also tends to depict violating those rights by cops and prosecutors as the "tough but moral" thing to do.

I like Law & Order - SVU in particular - and have watched most episodes over and over and over again :blushing: DH and I have a little game to see which one of us can encapsulate an entire episode before the opening credits If you're not a spring chicken, you might recall Name That Tune: "I can name that song in X number of notes." Well, I can recap an entire episode of SVU in one or two sentences before the first commercial!

Anyhoo, the thing that irks me most about these shows is that in the course of an hour-long episode, we witness the crime, an arrest, charges, a trial, and a verdict - intermingled with commercials. In some episodes, a guilty perp is slated for the needle before the end of the show Hopefully, the general public is aware that the wheels of justice turn very slowly at times and that it can be months, even years, before Lady Justice has her say. :moo:

CHERIE.T said:

Really? People need to know the difference between TV and reality.

Click to expand...

They do. It's academians who can't distinguish between ivy halls and the real world.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2013/09/06/is-the-depiction-of-law-order-on-law-order-influencing-jurors/

That said, Mr. Shniderman concedes that he doesn’t have empirical evidence to support his suspicion. (Our question: Did Perry Mason have a similar effect on juries in the early 1960s?)

In the meantime, the paper says, “empirical research, in the form of surveys and experiments is needed to examine the influence of this franchise.”