Fictional Representations

• Mandel 1984: from 1945-1984 over 10 billion crime thrillers sold while about 25% of prime time TV and 20% of films are crime shows or movie 
• Surette 1998: fictional representations of crime are the opposite of official statistics and similar to news coverage. 

  • Property crime is under-represented while violence drugs and sex crimes are over-represented 
  • Real-life homicides mainly result from brawl and domestic dispute, fictional ones are a product of greed and calculation 
  • Fictional crimes are committed by psychopathic strangers, not acquaintances. Fictional villains tend to be higher status, middle-age white males 
  • Fictional cops usually get their man