Not How It Works

[ladysprite]

So there's a... meme? Theme? Recurring trend? That I've been running across lately on tv, and it bugs the heck out of me.

It happens in cop procedural shows, and heist/caper shows, where one of the heroes is a gruff, tough, rugged cop/vigilante with a Not-so)-secret gooey caramel heart. Somewhere in the B plot of the episode, our hero notices a woman or child who is clearly being abused by some asshole, but there's not enough proof for actual legal action, and the victim can't or won't leave the abuser or turn them in.

So our hero, unable to legally do anything, corners the abuser. He (it's always a he, in my experience) may physically assault the abuser; he may just trap him physically. And he puts the fear of God and bodily harm into the abuser, making it clear that he (the hero) is fully aware of what the abuser is doing, and that if the abuser ever so much as lifts a finger against his victim again, our hero will be watching and will beat the everloving crap out of the abuser, and possibly kill him.

And our viewing audience is left cheering and uplifted, celebrating the idea that a bully has been put in his place, a victim has been rescued, and justice has been served.

Except... that's not how it works in the real world.

Abusers and bullies aren't the same thing. One may grow up to be the other, but abuse is a lot more serious. And an abuser isn't going to suddenly have an Ebenezer Scrooge-style turnaround just because a square-jawed hero tells him he'll punch him if he doesn't. If they were the type to change that easily they wouldn't be repeatedly beating their dependents in the first place.

Moreover, the abuser isn't going to blame the hero; once they have to face the shame and fear of the threat they're going to blame the victim, and take it out on them. If anything, the hero is likely to make things worse. And even if it does work, and the abuser is scared away from physically battering their victim, there are still a lot of things an abuser can do to their target(s) that don't involve physical violence at all. And they're even more likely to act out in those manners.

So. Vigilante threats to abusers? Feel-good tv for most viewers, maybe, but not actually the message we should be sending - that illicit violence is the way to cure illicit violence.

Then again, actual useful intervention doesn't make for as viscerally satisfying television, I suppose...

Comments

[mermaidlady]

meme? Theme? Recurring trend?

Trope.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

This is a combination of magical thinking, Ramboism, and the social meme that violence works as a long-term solution to problems.

And yeah, probably a trope, but I wouldn't begin to know what they call it -- some of the names on TV Tropes are what might be called "creative" if you wanted to understate the case. Oh, also, that site is one of the greatest time-sucks known to humanity.

[pixel.livejournal.com]

That is something I can't stand. The other trope I see that is related to this is that once the cops have figured out who the abuser is, they(almost gleefully) violate the abusers civil rights, miranda rights, and often use unnecessary physical violence against them.
It is clearly meant to evoke a similar feel-good response that the bad guy is getting his just rewards. And this only gets done to the actual bad guy, and never to the false leads, or people who were set up, or other mistaken bad guys. But it isn't that easy in the real world there either, and it promotes the idea that it is ok to violate due process because they are a "bad guy", which is a very dangerous precedent. Especially because even if they are the actual bad guy, violating someone's civil rights is a great way for them to get off on a technicality.

There are several shows I can't watch because of just these sorts of things, SVU being at the top of the list.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

A good counterexample came in Leverage--the badass bruiser of the protagonists saw a kid who was clearly being abused, clearly by his father, and clearly terrified because dad was a small-town cop. So at the end of the episode...he brought in a federal marshal, who is a mandatory reporter and outside the local cop system that the kid was afraid to talk to.

[visp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Good-guy-who-helps-women-by-speaking-out-against-rape-jokes-when-his-buddies-tell-them-and-says-things-like-"dude, not cool"-when-a-guy-talks-about-trying-to-get-a-women-too-drunk-to-say-no is just not nearly a fun enough character.