What are good argumentative topics in crime/criminal justice ..


The exponential rise of the true-crime industry in recent years and its substantial crossover occurred by popular culture denotes the necessity of assessing its influence. True-crime documentaries particularly succeed in maintaining the audience's rapt attention, and social media platforms play a valuable role in initiating extensive discussions about real-life crime. This demonstrates that true-crime documentaries are not products, but social objects that serve as a medium allowing for the exchange of opinions, conceptualizations, and negotiations, especially when various influences are involved. Consequently, true-crime documentaries act as possible sources reflecting collective orientations regarding real-life crime to propose several topics where criminal justice research can contribute meaningfully. The three true-crime genres – literary, audio, and visual – became aware of the great potential of documentaries as vehicles that could be turned to, to satisfy growing audience involvement. While there appears to be limited empirical work in the true-crime documentary realm, some writers report references to those programs as a resource, which stimulates perspectives about real-life crime, such as its emotional impact or social implications. The purpose of this article is to outline the interest several themes of criminology have to address true-crime documentaries, being criminology the discipline focusing on crime and its outcomes. Given this notable influence, we analyze how true-crime documentaries validate crime as a valuable phenomenon deserving of attention. This allows us to develop critical thinking about the manner criminological knowledge is socially mediated by true-crime documentaries, how those programs reveal societal contextualizations of criminal opportunities, and how different criminological theories contribute meaningfully to produce territorial-based crime information.


I think that is exactly what I am going to do after all the feedback I have gotten. I have posted this question on more places than just here and have found extremely mixed feedback - some people think it is a really good question because it really provides coherence and a story for me and my major, others think it may be a red flag. In the end, I think I will write multiple essays , this being one of them, and if I do very well on this essay in a way that shows it’s importance to my life while also being respectful and not raising any red flags, then by all means, I don’t see why I shouldn’t submit it. But yeah, I definitely feel the best option is to come up with multiple ideas, write them all out, and have others help me decide (as well as strong deliberation on my part) if this is the one I should submit.

Crime labs currently residing within the COVID-19 epicenters are shut down due to the pandemic. When the labs do become operational again, they will be unable to handle their normal backlog with only half or fewer forensic scientists returning to their workplace in an effort to stem the spread of the virus. If these labs are unable to handle the current output of incoming biological evidence - there is rarely a test, current technical limitations on degraded samples, DNA extraction, and existing high-throughput technology must educate the time to time-related deadlines - the next stop for law enforcement in this process will be to navigate the unentered databases. Not all law enforcement agencies enter all arrests into the databases. In order to determine which individuals arrested are required for entry, the crime statute is evaluated and this is generally self-limited to the amount of DNA profiles the lab can handle. Biological evidence can be collected decades before any statute of limitations is reached. However, just because the biological evidence is present and available for testing does not mean the DNA database hits will automatically be made. There are already culled samples at the database level that count in the tens of thousands. The databases are regularly scoured for potential hits in order to propel cold cases. Because of the popularity and true crime narrative-inductive shows and the increased DNA database submissions from them frequently being mentioned having helped solve cold case crimes, the bench in return has seen an uptick in submissions from inquisitive viewers. Offline, laboratories have voiced their concern that they will not have the bandwidth for these requested submissions and fear the backlog that will surely accompany this crisis.

50+ Crime and Punishment Essay Topics

Following the lead of Zemanek, Stark, and McCurdy, "True Testimony: Real-life Crime-Scene Tourists in Central Florida," "Stakeholder Ethical Orientation: Reporting of Grisly Entertainment News," and other researchers, I sought to understand the audiences for true crime and their motivations. Using an online survey to gather data, I discovered that the people with the highest interest in true crime feel that there is a powerful story involved, so they are curious and want to understand what drives people to commit such a serious crime. More often than not, the respondent has a specific curiosity about a crime that has shaped their own lifetime. Crime stories that have undergone extensive news coverage or have shaped public policy are examples. These are the crimes that everyone talks about and stir the curiosity of the most people. In an examination of true crime as a form of entertainment published in "Critical Studies in Mass Communications," Zenger Communications lists five aspects of the media portrayal of true crime. These are: abuse, sex, and murder; dark world of murder; scandal and murder; and forbidden women who defy society's rules. Using the journalist's use of the word "journalism," the media turned crime, something with the potential to be more violent, deadly, and incredibly painful, into an outlet that provides the corporate media the biggest potential for financial success in comparison to other aspects of journalism.

The structure of the criminal justice system can be somewhat complex and multi-layered. As such, an overview of the key players, their functions and relationships may assist in the understanding of crime, how the criminal justice system operates, and why crime continues to be reported in the manner that it currently is. It is a given that news media will always report on crime; however, whether true crime continues to be the most dominant genre is uncertain. The government policies, programs and statutory requirements of some criminal justice agencies are aimed directly at reducing the emphasis of consumers on true crime, and ensuring that general community safety and community confidence are maintained. This chapter provides students with an understanding of the roles played by the government agencies involved in the criminal justice system, and how its relevant disciplines promote and maintain high levels of safety and security for the general population.

True crime documentaries have seen an upsurge in popularity over the past several years, but have yet to receive a great deal of scholarly attention. True crime documentaries have been identified as part of the larger trend of "true crime," the fascination with murder, forensic investigation, and serial killers epitomized by programs like Law and Order and CSI. Characteristics of the true crime genre have been described as fascination with the mystery of who the criminal is, the details of the discovery of the crime, the chase, the capture, and any clues the criminal may have left behind. Said criminals manipulation of the truth, unruliness and strength in chaos, and criminal culpability ignored in the biased reality of the circumstances of a case. In this context, documentaries have some distinguished traits from other forms of true crime media: they purport to tell the actual events, have a face of being "educational", have the ability to be told from the viewpoint of the wrongfully convicted, and can have credibility based on the medium. Interestingly, the public fascination with true crime seems to contrast with the strong public interest in criminal justice reform and a tempering of the punitive turn that has characterized policy and public sentiment in the United States, though it is unclear how strong the interest in criminal justice reform is. Despite this breakout success, no previous research has examined the role that true crime documentaries play in creating, shaping, or sustaining public narratives around crime and justice, especially when "true crime" shows were found to undermine public policy. The research that has been done on true crime has primarily looked at crime drama, films, books, comics, and other more fictional representations of crime and the criminal justice system, largely focusing on treating the criminal justice system as out in the public for public consumption and on the dynamics between the victim and the criminal. A few studies focused on crime news and radio, advancing a discussion of a few snippets of one documentary that was made in collaboration with the Innocence Project and others discussing the concept of criminalization in fictional movies or in the crime narrative setting. Only one study located within a comprehensive Ameri-centric research that considers and discusses Justice as the ultimate aim of the working of criminal law addresses documentaries. It is through these lenses that we scrutinize and empirically address a social medium that is spreading the crime narrative. Our conventions are to eschew the identity of criminal culture and ignore the fact that documentaries have an impact on the public and their perceptions of wrongful conviction. This is disconcerting considering that documentaries are associated with not only creating rough-and-ready law, but creating that rough-and-ready law based on "hard truths" and sowing the seeds of fear, with its findings portraying reality and evoking reactions that we witness within a bigger structure that has the capacity to have an impact on law. It is a media phenomenon that deserves alternative attention. There is an opportunity to both study the complex pleasures, passive and active critiquing, and refreshingly, awareness of the complexities of the entirety of Fact/Tainment such documentaries seek to imbricate within their end product. We shall also assess whether these creations are a response to the public's thirst for the crime-related gross and granular content, and offer an analysis of this alarming phenomenon.

This review details historical and structural conditions that intersect the criminal justice system and true crime. This work provides a cultural analysis surrounding American life via an exploration of criminal justice and how crime is consumed as "infotainment" by the American public. Explicating the historic forms taken in varying convicted criminal stories and how that information presented then shaped American culture, this academic analysis reveals how criminal information previously was provided and how that presentation shifted. Considering the body of true crime stories as a form of infotainment demonstrates the relationship venerated between Americans and their crime stories. This author explores how criminal justice knowledge shifts even further with true crime storytelling, assisting those in its public conversation. Informative reasons for the investment of true crime in the public allow insights for criminal justice educators, providing added reasons of why students enroll in criminal justice courses. Because the electronic participation with true crime extensively involves several devices, those authorized to use displace teaching traditional educational skills taught as a necessary part within the criminal justice student change.


Locating the Heart in True Crime: A Craft Essay, by Aimée Baker

“I have always been told to write in my essay what defines me as a person and what makes me special.” Who said this? That doesn’t mean some odd detail. The points to show them your match. *Show, not just tell. *