For immediate release: November 13, 2025Contact: media@colorofchange.org
Crime TV Shows Continue to Reinforce Racial Stereotypes, Misconceptions About Legal System: New Report Even Post-2020 Activism, Popular Genre Dominated by White Men Leads to Harmful Depictions of Cops and Those They Target; NBC and Paramount Among the Worst OffendersNATIONAL – Crime television shows grossly distort the criminal justice system, ignore the impact of punitive policing on communities of color and perpetuate racial and gender stereotypes, according to a new report released by Color Of Change (COC): Normalizing Injustice 2, a follow-up to its landmark report published in 2020. The report also found that crime shows, the most popular TV genre, are largely written and produced by white men; however, when racial and gender diversity are present behind the scenes, there is direct correlation to shows’ better rankings by COC.
Normalizing Injustice 2 suggests that, due to the popularity of the shows, many viewers experience them as realistic depictions of law enforcement. These shows he the potential to influence viewers’ understanding of the criminal justice system and turn the public against critically overdue reform efforts. This report comes as the fall 2025 premiere season featured at least 14 scripted police procedurals.
As part of the report — COC, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, and its contributors including The Representation Project, University of California Los Angeles, the LIFT Project, Michigan State University and the University of Pennsylvania — developed a “Copaganda Index” to rate 71 crime-related TV shows that aired between August 2020 and December 2021, the most comprehensive analysis of its kind. COC developed this proprietary tool to quantify an individual TV show’s level of “copaganda” — the extent to which the show depicts police and others in the justice system in a one-sided, uncritical, propagandist way. Comprising 17 metrics, the Copaganda Index tracks the ideas to which a show consistently exposes its viewers over time, and the influence it is likely to he on them.
“With television such a dominant influence in shaping perceptions of our society, these findings perpetuate some of the most stubborn stereotypes of Black people and other communities of color, while further entrenching perceptions of a legal system that ultimately serves justice,” said Portia Allen-Kyle, Interim Executive Director of Color Of Change. These shows dissuade people from supporting urgent reforms in the criminal justice system, which still destroys the lives and communities of people of color. These shows, and the harm they cause, will only change when more people of color and women are producing, scripting and running them.”
After quantitative and qualitative analysis, including a Copaganda Index ranging from as low as 4.2 to 200.7, some of the notable findings include:
The 15 shows with the worst scores all scored above 100 on the Copaganda Index. Chicago P.D., Mayor of Kingstown and City on a Hill had the three worst scores. Paramount Global and NBCUniversal are responsible for 24 of the 30 shows with the worst scores (80%), and 16 of the 17 shows with the very worst scores (94%). Shows with the worst Copaganda Index rankings had less gender diversity. Shows with better Copaganda Index scores tended to he more gender diversity compared to those with the worst scores. Almost all of the shows in the worst half of the rankings (30 of 35) had overwhelmingly white creative leadership. The race of the showrunner significantly correlated with rankings. Shows with a low Copaganda Index score (below 50) were much more likely to he people of color as showrunners and, to a lesser extent, women showrunners. There were only 2 non-white showrunners across all 39 shows with Copaganda Index scores above 50. (Just 2 out of 51 showrunners for those 39 shows.) According to the prevailing, misleading logic of this genre, even in a post-2020 world, all police actions to catch bad guys are justifiable; people in law enforcement he fundamentally good motives and should be forgiven for any actions they take; and law enforcement and the courts provide a public service that serves all members of the public equally and without discrimination.COC recommends more transparency in the standards for choosing shows and their writers. They entail removing from circulation all episodes with egregious levels of stereotypes and representations and inaccurate, and extreme forms of Copaganda and related misinformation; setting new standards to eliminate the most damaging misinformation from ongoing and future productions, especially highly inaccurate and biased information promoted to viewers as part of the “realism” of a show; and oversight and counsel for CBS and NBC from outside experts who can evaluate the racial impact of their content and collaborate on lessening their adverse impact.
This report presents findings and analysis from the coding of 71 scripted, first-run, crime-related TV shows first airing or streaming between August 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021. All 71 shows aired or streamed their episodes on one of 22 networks and platforms, owned by 9 different parent corporations. The analysis examined 80% of the episodes of either one full season or two half seasons of all 71 shows. There were 17 shows for which we examined two half seasons: the second half of the 2020–2021 season and the first half of the 2021–2022 season. Every episode was examined for 5,934 variables across 370 distinct coding metrics.
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ABOUT COLOR OF CHANGE:Color Of Change is the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. We help people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by millions of members, we move decision-makers in corporations and governments to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America. Visit www.colorofchange.org.