Media Portrayals of Officers' Ethics in Local Law Enforcement: A Content Analysis of Mare of Easttown

• In Event: Portrayal of Criminal Justice Procedures on Television Shows

Abstract

Although a large body of literature on television portrayals of crime exists, a much more limited literature examines the portrayal of police officers' actions. That research exclusively examines television crime dramas' portrayals of officers in large, urban police departments through shows like Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, FBI, Blue Bloods, etc.

Crime dramas' emphasis on the behavior of officers in large urban police departments ignores the police that the vast majority of people in the U.S. interact with: officers in suburban and rural police departments. This study is a content analysis of one of the few television crime dramas to represent suburban police: the award-winning series "Mare of Easttown," set in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

This research finds that gender differences in portrayals of police officers in urban and suburban areas are similar, specifically in the portrayals of gender differences in officers' behavior and gender differences in the type of (un)ethical decisions officers make. This research also finds that officers in suburban and rural departments are portrayed as making (un)ethical decisions frequently due to "knowing" perpetrators because they live in close-knit communities.

Author

• Sarah Fischer, Marymount University