Citation

Lee S. Discourse 2003; 25(1): 81-97.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Wayne State University Press)

DOI

10.1353/dis.2004.0007

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper examines the role of the modern television crime drama as a forum for working through the trauma of living in a violent culture. It concentrates on the most popular of American television crime dramas, Law and Order, to discover how the American public relates—and wishes it related—to violence. It explores the fantasy of menace and protection that this drama represents and, finally, considers how that fantasy operates in political discourse about terrorism and the threat to public security.