Generational Differences and
Criminal Justice Issues in Clinical
Courses: From Perry
Mason and Andy Griffith to LA
Law and Hill City Blues to Law &
Order and the Wire.
Midwest Clinical Conference
Brad Colbert, Sarah Jane Forman & Peter Joy
Goals for This Session
• 1.
How does the media affect our
perceptions of the criminal justice system and
the actors in it?
• 2.
Has the media images of the accused,
prosecutors, defense lawyers and others in
the criminal justice system changed over
time?
• 3.
What does this mean to our teaching?
How does the media affect our
perceptions of the criminal justice
system and the actors in it?
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Perceptions of Criminal Justice in the
Classroom
Do you think the media accurately depicts the
criminal justice system?
Do you think your students believe that the
media accurately depicts the criminal justice
system?
Do you and your students consume the same
mass media?
What about the same mass media regarding
the criminal justice system?
Our Survey
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Unscientific, But Informative
10 Questions
111 Responses
Before We Sent The Survey To The Clinic
Listserve We Added An Additional Question
Identifying Clinical Legal Educators
Question 1
Question 2
Question 10
Question 10
Question 2
Question 3
Question 4. Which media depiction (TV, Movies, Music, etc.) of lawyers, law enforcement, and
criminal justice do you find most relevant?
• 21-29 “Actual trials such as the Casey Anthony trial. I also watch Law and
Order: SVU on a regular basis as well as Suits and the Newsroom touches
on it too somewhat. I think the most relevant is local news coverage of
actual events, not scripted ones.”
• 30-39 “The Wire because it depicts the social issues that cause crime and
it shows how different industries (media, government, etc) play a part in
the system as a whole.”
40-49 “I don't think the media depiction of these groups is relevant at all
and I try to avoid watching any TV or movies with this content. I try to limit
my experiences to real life courtrooms.”
• 50-59 “TV, though the accuracy of the depiction has deteriorated across
time.”
• 60 and older “I watch TV and movies for fun, but not as a source of
relevant information. I get the most relevant information from news
sources and from scholarly journals.”
Question 6
Question 6
Question 7
Question 7
Question 8
Question 8
Question 9
Question 9
Question 11
What is the most compelling media portrayal of a criminal justice related issue that you have seen/read/heard?
Why?
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The Wire
Law & Order
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Innocence Project
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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Thank You for Smoking
The NY Times coverage of Connick v. Thompson
This American Life's "Very Tough Love“
The Amy Senser trial
A Time to Kill
The Lincoln Lawyer
All Good Things
The series of reports on Reason.com about both police and prosecutorial conduct
The St. Paul Crime Lab story from July
The internet portrayal of the Trayvon Martin shooting
Rodney King
Murder on a Sunday Morning
A documentary called Crime After Crime
Presumed Innocent
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The Plea
My Cousin Vinny
Breaker Morant
The OJ Case
Black & Blue
What Jennifer Saw
Before Stonewall
Criminal Justice (with Forest Whitaker)
The Troy Davis Story
Rumpole of the Bailey
The Street Lawyer
 Do you think your students come into the clinic with an
accurate view of the criminal justice system?
 Do you think the media is getting better or worse in its
portrayal of the criminal justice system?
 Should we discuss how the media depicts crime and
justice in our clinics?
 If you think this should be discussed, how would you
discuss it?
 What are people doing to address the issue
(media/generational differences)?