As residents of a highly technological society undergoing rapid transformations in the conduits for information on crime, we have an increasing array of options in forming our ideas about crime and justice. A staple assertion of introductory texts and lectures is that societal perceptions of crime are formed through exposure to various forms of media, including television, film, video, and Internet services. Our knowledge acquisition has changed dramatically in the past 200 years, from first-hand knowledge of crime and deviance in rural communities and small urban centres to a society in which we are inundated with so much information that it is difficult to assess what specific impacts media have on our ideas and attitudes. Therefore, when we speak of ‘‘knowledge of crime,’’we must also be specific about the type of information we receive and the form in which this information is presented.

Crime is central to the production of news in Canadian society (Dowler 2004a: 574; Fleming 1983, 2006). Although crime is considered newsworthy and often produced as informative, it is also a central component in entertainment in Canadian and North American society. It grips the collective imagination of television viewers, theatregoers, Internet browsers, and readers of true-crime books. Moreover, the boundary between crime information and crime entertainment has been increasingly blurred in recent years through the rise of reality crime shows. Crime as entertainment has cemented a place in popular culture, reflected in all the above-mentioned media formats and beyond. Canadian viewers are now exposed to American reality television shows including American Justice, Cold Case Files, COPS,