ABERDEEN, S.D. – Northern State University professors, Dr. Kristi Brownfield and Dr. Courtney Waid-Lindberg have published an article in “The Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research.”
In the article, entitled “Frontier Justice: Examining Representations of Modern Rural Policing on Television,” Brownfield and Waid-Lindberg examined the actuality of the portrayal of rural policing in modern television, via popular shows such as “True Detective” and “Longmire.” A conclusion of their research, taken from the abstract of their article is included below.
“The conclusion is that these productions do not adequately represent the reality of contemporary rural policing; in turn, officers working in rural areas can be apprised of why the public may have misconceptions about rural crime and rural crime policy, and thus be better equipped to perform their job duties.”
“In working with Dr. Brownfield on this project, we were able to combine our research interests– her understanding of the sociology of media, gender and race coupled nicely with my research interests that focus on the public perception of crime and justice, as well as communities and how they face crime and issues of justice,” said Waid-Lindberg.
“I suppose what I think is most important about this kind of research, especially in a time where the country feels deeply divided between rural and urban areas, is understanding how much the media plays a role in creating misconceptions and misunderstandings but also reflecting fears and anxieties of American culture. Studying how television portrays rural areas, and crime and policing in rural areas, allows us to start to see the shape of the differences between rural and urban residents and why there's a lack of understanding about the type of life each has in their bubbles,” mentioned Brownfield about her research.
Brownfield is an assistant professor in sociology at Northern. She joined NSU in the fall of 2015. A majority of her academic work has been related to researching/analyzing gaming and online fan culture. She received a PhD in Sociology from Southern Illinois University- Carbondale in 2015.
Waid-Lindberg is an assistant professor in sociology at Northern. As a criminologist, Waid-Lindberg teaches a variety of courses pertaining to criminal justice, human services and general sociology. Since arriving at NSU in fall 2013, Waid-Lindberg has developed 10 new courses on campus, many of which pertain to criminal-justice.
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