Ethics in Law and Order

1. First, how realistic was the episode, based on what you know of real legal processes?

I don’t know very much about real legal processes, so I don’t have much information to draw from, but I felt like this episode of Law and Order was very unrealistic. I think one of the things that made the episode so unrealistic was the time line. From the first incidence to the trial, there seemed like there was barely two days that had passed. I also thought that all of the interactions between the victims, the suspects, and the police were very dramatic, and in real life would probably not have been so emotional. To me, the most unbelievable scene in the episode was the undercover operation set up to out the man in charge of the pedophile community. Realistically, the police would never have put the victim and his unstable, emotional mother in the same room as the suspects in order to arrest the leader of the pedophile community. Then, there was the domestic abuse free pass given to the mother after she had an outburst of anger and stabbed her husband. It was apparent that the policewoman became emotionally attached to the mother and her son and believed that the son needed his mother that night. In real life, this most likely would not have been allowed. All in all, the episode was very unrealistic but had certain pieces of reality that allowed the viewer to go along with the story.

2. Second, how effective was it?

As I just said, because the unrealistic aspects of the episode were bridged with small pieces of reality, it became more believable and I was more willing to accept the story as true. The goal of the creators of the show is definitely to entertain the public, not to inform the public about the practice of law. The episode was definitely interesting, right from the beginning. From the action of the car accident and fight between the two mothers, to the suspicion that Cory had been sexually abused, the viewer was definitely entertained. The story was far-fetched, but that was one of the things that kept you watching. Because the episode was infused with reality the viewer had reason to believe that even the far-fetched ideas in the show were possible. At the conclusion of the show I was definitely wondering if what had happened in the episode had ever happened in real life, and I was entertained enough that I could have sat through another episode of Law and Order.