Paper criminals vs. "criminalized" TV shows such as CSI---who is the more...

[zmanjohn00]

...guilty party? Paper criminals--authors who make a living by writing about crimes
Criminalized TV--CSI, Law & Order--tv shows that may inform potential criminals


Who is more guilty, moral or not, with influencing the modern day criminal?

[Brian I]

Thankfully we don't live in a world of Lex Luthors. If we had intelligent criminals, we'd be screwed. Luckily the average criminal is dumb as a box of rocks (hence why they commit crimes)

Just a suggestion.

[Audie]

I don't think many criminals sit down and read the latest James Patterson or Michael Connelly novel and go 'Hey I gotta do that!'. Nor are they getting new and improved ideas from TV shows. Are you aware that several of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation shows are based on actual cases? So somebody was already there and did that.

[pcpy]

I don't know if guilty is the correct word but I would have to say that any criminal that follows the TV shows is sure to get caught. After all, these are for entertainment and contain almost no fact. CSI; I know a person that has a doctorate in physical anthropology and they moonlight as a forensic expert. They deal with really mundane and boring stuff and have told me on various occasions just how far fetched the TV shows about forensics is.

The authors that write about crime probably give more information to the would be criminals than anybody else. Remember though that the most successful criminals have been in law enforcement.