Four types of crime stories

[Irwin]

Malcolm Gladwell believes there are four types of crime stories:

He got a bit confused while laying out his theory. This is what I think he meant:

• The Western: Law doesn't exist, an outsider comes in to create order
• The Eastern: The system is corrupt, an insider tries to fix it.
• The Northern: The system works
• The Southern: The system is corrupt, an outsider comes in to fix it.

What was the last crime movie you watched or book you read, and does it fit into one of those categories?

 

[oldiebutgoody]

I have watched a great many crime movies and read even more crime novels. In the past years or so I've watched a number of crime movies dealing with Irish-Americans gangs in Boston:

Friends of Eddie Coyle
Gone Baby Gone
Mystic River
Southie
The Town


All Eastern and all show how the system is corrupt like Hell. Some may try to fix it but all too often they fail. If anything, the cops and feds are even more corrupt than the crooks. It does not surprise me in the least to see such presentations as folks back East are often very truthful and forthright about it all. Having grown up in the Northeast I know from personal experience.

All too often cops (especially urban cops) are shown as angelic and incorruptible on TV. One need only read books such as these to learn that this myth is baseless:

Amazon.com: Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love (9780062085443): Ruderman, Wendy, Laker, Barbara: Books
My Midnight Years | Chicago Review Press


there are many more