According to this article of the New York Times, murders have decreased in the United States from 24,000 in 1991, to 15,000 this past year. But then again we would have not known that because of so many crime shows that we watch on an everyday routine. The article talks about how crime shows are very popular now a days. It has its own channel, Investigation Discovery (i love this channel by the way) where they show, shows such as 48 hours and dateline. These shows are actually based on real life murders, or murders that happen in other shows or books, and they just add their little twist to them. These type of shows have become very popular within the last few years, maybe because it gives you that suspense, as to who was it really that committed the murder and why.
I now think if these type of shows is the reason why murders have gone down. If you really think about it, these shows for the most part, at the end of the day the culprit is found at the end, and technically in the perfect murder they are not. Maybe after watching these shows people are starting to think that there is no such thing as a perfect murder.
-Armenis P.
I find it interesting that the author starts off the article by saying how the number of murders in the U.S has decreased when for the rest of the article he just talks about crime shows on television. Is there some sort of link to crime television and the decrease in crime? I definitely don’t think so. In fact, I think crime shows have only gotten more popular over the years as murder rates in America are supposedly decreasing. The public has a growing fascination with criminals and the meticulous ways in which they are committed. I, personally don’t watch Investigation Discovery, but I used to watch ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ and really enjoyed the creepiness-factor–it was like watching a real life horror movie. The article says that “ID…in promoting its ‘Shark Week’…that the real predators we should fear are one another.” So is this channel promoting this sense of distrust towards who? Our neighbors, our friends, ourselves? With such a large audience of viewers coupled with living in a place like New York City, its no wonder that most people will keep to themselves. This sort of plays into the anonymity factor–the fact that the person sitting next to us on the subway could be a serial killer. But I wonder if it would be going to far to say that these shows, in their promotion of instilling fear and distrust within the public, is actually their purpose?