Sociation Today

    In this paper, I examine portrayals of crime, criminal offenders, and cops in Icelandic television programming. One aim of this work is to analyze what defines a crime, a criminal offender, and a "good or quality cop" from an Icelandic perspective. Another objective of this paper is to make commentary on the degree of similarity or difference from American crime dramas on the cultural understanding of crime. Guiding this work is the perspective that crime television dramas are a powerful force of cultural information and an effective means of debating issues of crime, societal problems, and notions of justice.

     Regarding Icelandic crime dramas, I explore two programs, Case (2017) and The Lava Field (2014). In brief: Case is an examination of the physical and sexual exploitation of young women and "the corruption lurking beneath the respectableness" of sacred institutions (Icelandic Magazine, 2017: para. 2), while The Lava Field is a commentary on the connection between economic exploitation and criminal action, with a particular emphasis on crimes committed not only by "street thugs" but also by the moneyed and powered elite.

     After reviewing theses shows and comparing them to American cop dramas, I, in the end, argue that we can learn much from these televised shows. Most notably from my perspective, American citizens should take from Iceland a more critical view of corporate and governmental crime and try to break from the obsession of street crime perpetuated in American crime dramas and media spectacles (Glassner, 2010). Moreover, while American society will continue to deal with concerns of racism and prejudice, I contend that policing agencies can do much to combat the perception that they are structures of bias. One way this can be accomplished is by focusing more forcefully on procedural justice and promoting alternatives to hyper-masculine attitudes and recruiting strategies (Newburn & Peay, 2012) as suggested by Icelandic models.

Why Television?

Television shows can be considered a vehicle of modern society "to define and handle moral questions: what is right and what is wrong" (Smolej, 2010: 70). And in particular, by watching TV one finds what is "wrong" in a given time to a particular society. As Schilling (2017) notes, "watching even the most gorgeously photographed crime drama is akin to peering under the sink, to find the caked dirt and cracks in the pipes" (para 2). Moreover, portrayals of crime and deviance in the media are often seen as essential parts of social control in that they help define what is condemnable in society and they reflect how persons in a given society believe deviant individuals should be punished for their behavior (Ericson, Baranek and Chan, 1987). Raftner and Brown (2011) argue, that is has become difficult for traditional academic criminologists to ignore the explanations of criminal behavior generated "so powerfully and prodigiously" by television and other cultural discourses (p.5). To ignore cultural representations of crime is to ignore the largest public domain in which thought about crime occurs, and television serves as a cultural resource for viewers working through issues of criminal responsibility and themes of punishment and correction. Further:

The point is not only does [television] give us fresh perspective on crime; it is that representations organize our worlds. We cannot think without them. Representations construct our realities, shaping how we think, define crimes, organize our thinking about 'crime problems', define who is a criminal, who is a good law enforcement officer, and how we should 'fight' crime. We were not born with opinions on these matters; rather, we build up (and change) our opinions over time in light of our cultural encounters (Raftner and Brown, 2011: 186).

In terms of the world of TV police fiction, Rosenberg (2016a: paragraph 67) writes that "we can't understand the state of policing in America without exploring [television's] seductive visions of what it means to be a cop." And the state of American cop shows is, as several scholars (Oliver, 1994; Nichols-Pethick, 2012, Rosenberbg 2016b,c,d,e) contend, reflective of a broader American culture that is full of racial prejudice, a lack of confidence in the criminal justice system, and generalized suspicion of others. Thus, significant insight can be gleaned into society and its social problems if one takes the time to look at society's television dramas (Rafter, 2006; Sabin, Wilson, Speidel, Faucette, Bethell, 2015). Other scholars extend this notion, and argue that portrayals of policing on TV can even work to prompt citizen and political discussion about the reality (and/or need of change) in the police and policing culture (Newburn and Peay 2012). And former police officials have even suggested that politicians watch particular police crime dramas in order to better inform their policies (Davis 2017).

Setting a Symbolic Baseline: American Crime Dramas

As opposed to Icelandic television programming, American crime dramas dominate the broadcast landscape. American police dramas have been a staple of prime-time programming for decades, including such shows as: Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, Cops, NYPD Blue, The shield Law and Order, Hawaii Five-O, Lethal Weapon, Blue Bloods, Major Crimes, Chicago PD, CSI. As Maguire, Sandage, and Weatherby (1999) note, dating back to the mid-1950s "cop-shows" typically depict police in stereotypical ways—as round-the-clock crime-fighters who maintain society and civility against violent criminal offenders. In his book Television and the Drama of Crime (1992), Richard Sparks brings together criminological and media studies to reflect of the psychological impact of US crime television on American viewers. Sparks (1992) contends that crime programming ultimately crafts an emotional cycle of fear and vengeance within the viewer: (1) first comes a sense of fear of (often) violent crime (mostly murder) that is seemingly random, then (2) comes the narrative resolution at the end of the episode with a sense of vengeance/punishment (with the offender shot dead or roughed up by the police). But, this solution can only be temporary as it will be broken when the next episode is watched. Thus, American crime narratives implicate viewers in a continuous cycle of anxiety, crisis, vengeance, and resolution. One question to ask in relation then, is do Icelandic cop and crime shows do the same?

Methodology

Taking a qualitative content analysis approach (Neuendorf, 2017) my primary aim is to gain an understanding of the cultural representations of crime with particular focus on notions of what defines a crime, who is a criminal offender, and what makes "good or quality cop" from an Icelandic cinematic perspective. Methodologically speaking, this research is not a scientific, quantitative sampling of all "crime" television programs in Iceland. Rather, this is a purposive (Shaw, 1999) qualitative analysis of two pop-culture crime programs available to an American audience.

Shows Examined

A total of two programs, (Case, 2017 and The Lava Field, 2014), consisting of 13 individual episodes (9 for Case and 4 for Lava), formed the foundation of this analysis. It was not possible to get access to every program that fell into the "crime genre" and thus the two programs were selected for analysis primarily on the basis of their availability via Netflix.

Coding

While watching the particular shows and episodes, I looked for predetermined and emergent themes. In the review of predetermined themes, I mean that I counted, wrote commentary on, and did a "semiotic interpretation" (Mitry, 2000) of the following set subjects:

the types of crimes committed,
the procedural and philosophic discussion around the crime and criminals responsible,
the procedural/ethical actions of the officers involved. In terms of emergent themes (refrains not initially expected or even sought out), I noticed a strong repeated focus on:
depictions and expectations of gender,
the role and discussion of social institutions (i.e., the responsibility of government), and
antisocial acts committed by police and citizens (including acts of verbal aggression, fraud, cheating, theft, lying, damage to property and psychologically injurious behaviors to oneself or another)—and I included all of these notions in my analysis.

Detailing how I conducting my semiotic analysis, I made the basic "unit of analysis" the scene in which the character(s) acted to reveal one of the above themes. Specifically, I detailed in my notes the dialogue of the scene, the scene's duration and key importance to the overall narrative (which often necessitated multiple viewings). Finally, my notes served as the basis of my analysis and all six themes of exploration are woven into the sections that follow.

Comparing American Crime Dramas

As a comparison to the Icelandic dramas examined, I read multiple scholarly analyses of American crime shows (Sparks, 1992; Doyle, 2003; Raftner, 2006; Rafter and Brown, 2011; Nichols-Pethick, 2012; Sabin, et., al, 2015; Jenner, 2016; Rosenberbg 2016a,b,c,d,e) to set a base line of contrast in terms of the coded themes noted above. Expressly, I wrote out the academicians' critical words of evaluation regarding the definition of crimes/criminals and the actions/attitudes of a good vs bad cop and I used these to analogize the depictions I recorded in the Icelandic police dramas. Further, as a mode of improving the "trustworthiness" (Elo, et.al., 2014) of their commentary and analysis, I completed a viewing sampling of various American cop shows found on Netflix during the time of this writing. Specifically, I watched a random episode from each of the seasons available on Netflix from the following shows: The Glades (4 episodes); Law and Order SVU (4 episodes); Hawaii-5-O (6 episodes); Blue Bloods (6 episodes) for a comparative investigation of the media representations of crimes, criminals, and cops on police television dramas. Broadly, I found themes similar to the aforementioned scholars' analyses (i.e., obsession with violent crime, hyper-masculine crime fighters, etc.) and this is explored and interwoven with the discussion of the Icelandic shows below.

Analysis

What makes a Crime… and who is a Criminal?

As opposed to most American crime dramas which tend to focus on violent street crime (Jenner 2016), the two Icelandic shows reviewed make a clear point of focus on corporate and economic crimes and institutional deviance. In part, this is related to the global financial economic collapse of 2008 (for a detailed analysis of the economic collapse in Iceland please read: Durrenberger and Palsson, 2014, and for a cinematic take of the crisis in America, please view the movie, The Big Short, 2015). In 2000, after the Icelandic government privatized the banking system, a number of bankers began engaging in market manipulation and fraud. Specifically, they artificially inflated the value of Icelandic banks (falsifying investments into the banks to make them appear larger than they were and thus more able to borrow monies from abroad). Ultimately, this cycle of borrowing and investing worked akin to a pyramid scheme which deliberately deceived investors and depositors alike. When the global collapse happened, the banks (and bankers) had no way to pay back the monies they borrowed and this contributed significantly to the collapse of the Icelandic banking system. As a result of this financial crisis, pensions and welfare benefits were cut, leading to increased social-exclusion and country-wide anger and revolt. Fontaine (2016) writes:

The bankers contributed significantly to an economic collapse that hurt, worst of all, those of us with no direct stake in the banking system. We watched helplessly as our money plummeted in value but our wages remained stagnant, as being able to pay the rent and put food on the table became a lot more difficult – too difficult for many. Just being able to survive was a real struggle for most of the country (para. 3).

     Then eight years later, in early 2016, the Panama Papers (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 2016) were released showing that 600 persons of elite financial and political status in Iceland had tax havens and secret offshore accounts hiding monies crafted by the financial misdeeds that lead to the 2008 economic collapse. As a result, faith in Icelandic social institutions dropped significantly. Indeed, a recent poll (Fontaine 2017) asked Icelanders which subjects they were most worried about in Iceland or Icelandic society. In the number one position was health care, at 49.2%. Close behind was "corruption in finance and/or politics," at 48.9%. Interestingly, street crime and violence was 11th on the list.

     These concerns are reflected in Icelandic television. For example, in Case, the chairman of the Government's Agency for Child Protection, turns out to be a child predator and pedophile, harming the very children he is charged to protect—and later in the final episode (and as a possible setup for a second season) we learn that a prominent priest in the national church is apparently an abuser as well. Further, in Lava Field, a banker is murdered (police initially suspect murder as a revenge for "losing everything" in the economic crash). Ultimately, it turns out that the murdered banker is a victim of his dealings with a drug-dealing biker gang. In not so subtle commentary, the banker is shown as a glutton and criminal, willing to make wealth and capital in endless exploitive and criminal pursuits.

     Finally, the Icelandic vision is one that suggests that the most serious crimes are those of institutional actions born out of a lack of governmental transparency and oversight. From this perspective, Icelanders also appear to subscribe to the belief that: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely (Magnússon, 2006). Thus, Icelandic media and society often calls for external civilian supervisory review over major social institutions (including the police) (Fontaine 2016b).

Who is a Cop and What Makes a Good Cop?

While American crime dramas are becoming more diverse in depicting female characters in positions of power (Heidensohn and Brown 2012), they still lag behind Icelandic depictions. Indeed, in both of the Icelandic dramas reviewed here, women hold the prominent power positions. Women are the police chiefs, the house commanders, the chief forensic scientists—and as detectives, they are as competent and dogged in their pursuit of the "bad guys" as the men are. And this too reflects Icelandic societal conditions. Iceland, as ranked by the United Nations Gender Equality Index (The University Women of Europe, UWE, 2016), is one of the most gender equitable countries in the world. This means that in terms of things like accesses and quality of reproductive health services, access to the labor market, and social empowerment, women have fewer structural and cultural impediments hindering social mobility and power attainment.

Beyond the fact that there is no gendered stereotype regarding who is or could be a cop, Icelandic police also tend to be university educated and trained (in "real life" Icelandic police academies are conducted in university settings, see: Hafstað, 2016). According to Nicole Rafter (2006), a scholar of the American criminal justice system and popular culture, American cops and detectives have historically been depicted as cowboys or gunslingers with:

little more than an eight-grade education and male anatomy (p. 111-112)… [American] cop films have served as a medium for the definition of masculinity… Historically picturing the ideal men as fearless, heterosexual, independent, unemotional, superhumanly powerful (p.119).

     American television typically portrays the (mostly male) police officer as the street-wise cop, who understands the vicious nature of criminals and who can deal effectively with them. They are "serious cops" who defy any restraints posed by legal or departmental rules and regulations—which often puts them in conflict with soft headed and hearted "management cops" (Reiner 2010: 194).

     However, the rule-breaking and the cowboy cop is not the norm in Icelandic television—men are shown discussing (and doing) painting and poetry, and they even engage in gendered divisions of labor including child rearing and household chores. The so called "boy code" (meaning: quick to anger, macho, non-empathic, or non-caring male, see: Pollock, 1998) is broadly absent and men are even show enjoying family and the broader aspects of social life. Whereas, in American cops shows, men are the stoic "sturdy oaks" (Pollock 1998) who routinely raise their voice, punch, slam, and break objects as a sign of displeasure and frustration (see coding theme six in the methodology section). In depiction, they seem generally disgusted by society and are mistrustful of it and the people in it—and with rare exception, American cops only interact with family when their "loved ones" are put in the line of fire for plot development (Sabin, R., et al., 2015). Here, American society is perceived as quite wicked and only through the action of self-sacrificing cops is the "evil" of society held in check.

     Further, there is acknowledgement that the "Icelandic Way" of policing is done with significant cooperation between police, media, forensic science, and most importantly, the community. "Community spirit" is only seen as the basis of crime control in Iceland (Gunnlaugsson, 2017)—and this is opposed to the cultural projection that American cops always catch the bad guys and do so in a heroic and almost singular fashion without the help of the public (Townes, 2015).

     Now, when Icelandic men and women do go "rouge," they are routinely shamed by fellow officers for not following the rules ("you must be more respectful" says one detective in Case to another for not thanking a suspect for his time at the end of tense and combative interview. Another offer is chastened by his investigative partner in Lava for being too physical with a known child predator ("was he resisting arrest that forcefully that you had to strike him?," she states with condemnation). Here, the implication is that the even the worst of our society should be treated with respect. In policing, these actions are most reflective of the concept "procedural justice." Gold and Bradely (2012) write:

     Procedural justice describes the idea that how individuals regard the justice system is tied more to the perceived fairness of the process and how they were treated rather than to the perceived fairness of the outcome. For example, even someone who receives a traffic ticket or "loses" their case in court will rate the system favorably if s/he feels that the outcome is arrived at fairly (para 2).

     Underlying procedural justice is the idea that the criminal justice system must constantly be demonstrating its legitimacy to the public it serves. If the public ceases to view its justice system as legitimate, then citizens are less likely to comply with the law and cooperate with law enforcement efforts when they feel the system and its actors are de-legitimate—and this then appears to define a "good cop" in Iceland above everything else. I also note that when cops violate procedure and procedural fairness, they are shown being punished for violations of order, and are even arrested for doing so. This was the case for the lead detective in Lava (he was arrested for violating procedure and using his rank to have subordinates lie and cover-up evidence, even though his actions could be defined as morally just).

     Finally, do Icelandic crime narratives implicate viewers in a continuous cycle of anxiety, crisis, and vengeance, as is the norm in American crime shows (Davis 2017). I argue both yes and no. Icelandic depictions do urge caution and surveillance of the powered elite and their social institutions. And a type of anxiety around institutionalized deviance is certainly found in media constructions. But, Icelanders do not have the same fear of street crime (i.e., random violent crime), nor do they call for the type of "blood-soaked" vengeance of criminal offenders as found in American media (Aladjem, 2008). Icelanders, believe in incarcerating those who offend, but they are also apt to believe in treating offenders humanely as something for themselves. The theory is that if they as societal members are apt to be harsh and vengeful, then it will ripple outward in their lives, affecting their self-image, their families, even society as a whole (Gunnlaugsson, & Galliher, 2000).

Discussion and Conclusion

In closing this reflective analysis of Icelandic crime dramas, I would be remiss if did not mention a few passing thoughts. First, to be fair, drug use, sexual violence, suicide, and murder do occur in these shows—but the notion within is that they are driven criminologically by larger societal forces. Specifically, suicide is driven by the failure of institutions to provide care and support; Murder is the result of his/her distance from external societal control. When communal/social regulations break down, the controlling influence of society on individual propensities is no longer effective and individuals are left to their own devices. Thus, Icelandic crime drama (and explanations for crime) seem very Durkheimian (1951, 1953). As Icelandic criminologist, Helgi Gunnlaugsson writes, "Iceland is known for its egalitarianism in a way that seems difficult to comprehend for most outsiders. Icelanders think of themselves as similar, kindred, and have a strong sense of community: everybody counts" (Gunnlaugsson 2017: para. 4).

Second, in American crime dramas, the supportive or corrupting influences of social institutions are not the norm in explaining conformity, crime, and deviance (with perhaps the rare exception of the TV show The Wire, see: Kostroff-Noble, et al., 2008). Rather, American crime dramas tend to focus on racial (rather than class) differences and subcultural theories of violence and poverty (Miller 1958, Alcindor 2017). Because Iceland is so ethno-culturally similar, notions of class, and social institutions take primary focus and Icelanders don't get trapped in pseudo-scientific and racist arguments about crime causation (Murry & Hernstein, 1994; Cohen, 2016). Third, America is not as egalitarian as Iceland, and critically speaking, we are instead a nation that tends to blame the poor for their deficiencies (Greenbaum, 2015) and victimize those failed by social institutions (Cullen, et al., 2010). As Fisher (2014) writes:

The American impulse is to target individuals and specific cultural groups. And the solution to poverty and criminality is to simply…. lecture the parents, discipline the kids, provide moral training. The alternative, more European, is to target the opportunity structure–provide jobs and practical training, guarantee health benefits and housing—so that a commitment to society is born and opportunities for success are possible (p. 56).

     Additionally, rather than call for more critical investigations into corporate or governmental deviance, as they do in Iceland (a recent rare exception in America was the Occupy Movement, Gitlin, 2012), the American corporate elite continue to be bolstered by tax cuts, corporate subsidies, and bank bailouts. Instead, we continue our fascination with street crime despite that fact that violent crime continues to hover near historic lows (Fenwick, 2017).

     Third, and lastly, Icelandic police actors seem guided by procedural justice and the rooting out of bad apples. Whereas, American cop dramas seem obsessed with the blue wall of silence and protecting the action-oriented cops that do what needs to be done to catch the bad guys, even if it means bending or breaking the law (Doyle, 2003).

     In sum, if crime dramas are a source of cultural information, and if they truly are "an effective means of debating issues of crime and justice [and] social problems" (Rafter, 2006: vii), then we can learn much and will have much to debate concerning the Icelandic model of crime definition and strategies of policing and crime control. Most notably, from my perspective, American citizens should take from Iceland a more critical view of corporate and governmental crime and try to break from the obsession of street crime perpetuated in American crime dramas and media spectacles (Glassner, 2010). Further, while American society will continue to deal with concerns of racism and prejudice, I contend that policing agencies can do much to combat the perception that they are structures of bias. One way this can be accomplished is by focusing more forcefully on procedural justice and promoting alternatives to hyper-masculine attitudes and recruiting strategies (Newburn & Peay, 2012) as suggested by Icelandic models.

Weaknesses and Suggestions for Future Research

A primary concern of this project is the limited access to Icelandic crime dramas. As of this writing, only two shows were available to the American viewing audience. This obviously limits the generalizability of this work in terms of fully understanding not only Icelandic society generally, but the Icelandic criminal justice system specifically. Continued work and reflection can be done in this area as more shows make it to the US, or as scholars learn Icelandic (or collaborate with Icelandic scholars) to create additional reflective content-analyses.

Secondarily, we should remember that these are fictional crime dramas and not documentaries, and that any understandings of the CJ system through pop cultural depictions should be enhanced by actual lived-ethnographic work with Icelandic officers and legal officials (see: Gunnlaugsson & Galliher, 2000; Guðjónsson, 2005). But again, this is a research note and not a fully complete investigation. I will continue to reflect on the issues raised here and work to overcome the weakness of this paper as additional resources allow.

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TV Series

Blue Bloods (2010-).
Case (2017).
Chicago PD (2014-).
Cops (1989-).
CSI (2000-2015).
Hawaii Five-O (remake, 2010-).
Hill Street Blues (1981-1987).
Law and Order (1990-2010).
Law and Order SVU (1999-).
Lethal Weapon (2016-).
Major Crimes (2012-).
Miami Vice (1984-1990).
NYPD Blue (1993-2005).
The Glades (2010-2013).
The Lava Field (2014).
The Shield (2002-2008).
The Wire (2002-2008).

Film

The Big Short (2015).