America’s fascination with crime permeates mass media. Indeed, critics frequently charge that media violence incites crime rather than reflecting it (evidence is murky).

Still, as movie plots, fodder for tabloid news, investigative reports, local news hype or “reality” shows, criminal activity investigation and prosecution permeate the everyday televisual world. These elements also have structured many long-running fictional genres, although, unlike film, the viewpoint of a criminal is rarely central. Hence, these series have created myths of good and evil for generations, while revealing changes and uncertainties about the nature of justice. Jack Webb’s Dragnet (NBC, 1952–9, 1967–70) altered radio models by its detailed focus on everyday police activity with a clear sense of authority (exaggerated in the revival that targeted countercultural elements). The show’s “realism” was reinforced by the solemn warning “the story you are about to be told is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent,” as well as the retribution that closed each show. Ironically Webb lionized the Los Angeles Police Department, whose racism and corruption would later spark major riots.

The hero cop continued for decades, including the noirish heritage and location shots of Naked City (ABC, 1958–9, 1960–3), period violence in The Untouchables (ABC, 1959–63), intergenerational dynamics in Streets of San Francisco (ABC, 1972–7) and the idiosyncracies of Kojak (CBS, 1973–89; ABC, 1989–90). Almost all these shows focus on detectives who unravel complex schemes amid increasing violence. Patrol cops faced tedium in Webb’s spin-off Adam-12 (NBC, 1968–75) and ridicule in Car 54, where are you? (NBC, 1961–3. Rural law met gentler humor in The Andy Griffith Show (CBS, 1960–8). Even the FBI had a hit show.

But were the police really friends and heroes? Even the radio heritage of the outsider private eye suggested police were not always just; others were there to cross the line, reopen the case and get the blonde an upright policeman, with whom she eventually could not be involved. Here, Peter Gunn (NBC, 1958–60, ABC 1960–1) was followed by Mannix, Cannon, Tanner, Baretta, etc. Aaron Spelling’s Charlie’s Angels (ABC, 1976– 81) showcased active albeit titillating females, while Remington Steele (NBC, 1982–6), Moonlighting (ABC, 1983–9) and others played up romance and detection. Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote (CBS, 1984–98) provided a senior detective with old-age appeal. Minorities have been relatively absent, apart from Sammo Hung and Arsenio Hall in Martial Law (ABC, 1999–2000), a black partner in Spenser: For Hire (ABC, 1985–8) and Burt Reynold’s Native American in Hawk.

Yet doubts and challenges also emerged within the police genre itself. The teenmarketed Mod Squad (ABC, 1968–73) turned a young woman and two angry youths, black and white, into police agents. Barney Miller (ABC, 1975–82) assembled diverse, jaded characters in a show where police work as comic relief. Lives, as well as process, became central to police drama.

This shift is frequently linked to Cagney and Lacey (CBS, 1982–8), which not only showcased female partnership, but also dealt with family issues, alcoholism and breast cancer. Ensemble complexity also permeates the creations of Steven Bochco and Thomas Milch, for example Hill Street Blues (NBC, 1981–7) and NYPD Blue (NBC, 1993–).

Male and female, black and white, police on the beat, detectives and lawyers alike lie, fear, act heroically and wrongly and in one experiment—Cop Rock (ABC, 1990)—even sang. Barry Levinson created a gritty human ensemble set in Balti-more, MD in Homicide (NBC, 1993–9), while enforcement and prosecution mesh in the 1990’s Law & Order (NBC, 1990–), hewing close to current news. The raw police sexuality of NYPD Blue stands light years away, physically and emotionally from Dragnet. Nor is justice easy or cases closed in a single episode.

Other action/crime genres also appeared sporadically on television. The 1960s saw secret agents enforcing justice worldwide in I Spy (NBC, 1965–8), where Bill Cosby pioneered black lead roles, Mission Impossible (CBS, 1966–73; ABC, 1988–90), enforcing a “Dragnet” morality against dictators worldwide, the Bondish Man from U.N.C.L.E. (NBC, 1964–8) and the wise-cracking Get Smart (NBC, 1965–9; CBS, 1969– 70). This genre faded notably after the Vietnam War and Watergate. Superheroes also have shown up when police cannot help—especially in Saturday morning cartoons.

The year of 1989 also saw the debut of FOX’s “Realityshow,” Cops (FOX, 1969), with cinéma vérité handheld videos and apparently unedited footage of police life and events on the street. Here, the “unvarnished truth” restates many of the concerns of class and race that fictional shows had first hidden and then, perhaps too readily embraced.

In all these shows, fighting crime is not just fighting evil-doers. Police chafe against rules (echoing conservative debates about the Supreme Court decisions), criticize lawyers and judges, and sometimes pause to reflect on society gone wrong. In these themes and the human dramas they play out, these shows reflect and shape the discourse of crime and punishment in contemporary society.