Making Crime Television

Anita Lam is an Assistant Professor of Criminology in the Department of Social Science at York University, Canada.

• List of Figures Introduction Chapter 1. Setting the stage: A Literature Review and Analysis Chapter 2. On Method: Trail-sniffing Ants and Bread Crumbs of Reflexivity Chapter 3. Breaking The Bridge: Documenting the Heterogeneous Knowledge Inputs into the Laboratory of the Writers’ Room Chapter 4. The Case of the Missing ‘Bad Apples’: Transforming ‘Injured Cop’ into ‘The Unguarded Moment’ Chapter 5. Showcasing Hamilton: How Place Becomes Relevant in the Making of Canadian Crime Dramas Chapter 6. Conclusion Bibliography

"In Making Crime Television: Producing Entertaining Representations of Crime for Television Broadcast, Anita Lam provides a road map for potential avenues of access to the closed and ‘‘highly stratified’’ world of the entertainment industry for the uninitiated academic Hollywood neophyte. What is most insightful about Lam’s research is her depth of understanding of legal regulations and distribution concerns of network and cable television productions. She effectively argues on behalf of the need for research to be conducted on the production process, specifically on how television creators know about crime in opposition to the dominant paradigm that views entertaining representations of crime as final products and focuses on audience interpretation. By placing her analysis of crime TV shows in the cultural context of the entertainment industry, Lam found entertaining representations of crime and the criminal justice system to be ever evolving due to creative team and network executive input on script revisions." - Carolyn J. Zeppa, Entertaining Media Representations of Crime and the Criminal Justice System: A Review Essay, Critical Crimonology, 2015, vol23.pp209-213 ‘This book offers a fascinating and important contribution to the literature on media representation of crime and punishment. The systematic focus on the production process is novel. It is also enlightening, revealing the micro-processes through which media production is entangled with power and dominant ideologies.’ - Dr Jamie Bennett, Governor HMP Grendon and Springhill, Prison Service Journal