During class yesterday when Professor Harris asked who watches shows such as the CSIs, Law & Order (Special Victims Unit, Los Angeles, United Kingdom, Criminal Intent and plain ol’ Law& Order), Criminal Minds, etc, etc. I really should have raised both hands. Yes, I am a HUGE crime show nerd. Every night before bed I watch at least one episode of the above listed and keep up to date on the regular L&O: SVU and Criminal Minds. To be honest, the creator of Law and Order Dick Wolf is always on my list to be one of the people invited to my fictional ‘if you could have ten people over for dinner dead or alive …’ However, my somewhat obsession has its negative effects. My friends joke that I am paranoid about walking outside alone after dark, I don’t like staying over night in my house alone and am nervous about my big move to London this fall alone (because on so many episodes the victim is always the girl living alone who has no one to check up on her). When Professor Harris mentioned the substantial difference between the homicides in Manhattan on prime time (108 over four shows in one season) versus the actual amount (59 in one year), it actually was kind of reassuring for me. I know that I must sound like a nut bar who should just stop watching crime shows and separate what is fiction and what is real. However, whenever I do put on the news, the headlines are always speaking of shootings, car accidents, break ins, trials, child pornography, and wars. In my neighbourhood newspaper The Village Post, there is a page devoted to the burglaries and violence in my area since the last issue. After reading these excerpts in each issue, I become frightened that my house will be next. This causes me to wonder, is my irrational fear of something happening to me rooted in my love for crime shows and overactive imagination? Or is it driven by the medias constant reporting on violent crimes?
