Although we live in an ever-evolving world that is constantly striving to create something that is equally tantalizing and fresh, the one topic that seems to stay the same is violent offenders. The entertainment industry keeps pumping out TV shows and movies about these violent offenders. Shows and movies like American Psycho, House of Cards, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent all push the narrative that violence is alluring by romanticizing the violent actions of criminal offenders.

House of Cards plays on the viewer’s previous notions of what it means to be a psychopath and how psychopathy is seducing to not only the psychopath themselves but also the surrounding people. The show revolves around the character Frank Underwood, the majority whip for Congress, and his never-ending quest to get power and eventually form a legacy. Desire Palmen, Jan Derkinsen, Emile Kothhoff, authors of House of Cards: Psychopathy in Politics, utilize a variety of rhetorical elements to support the claim that the entertainment industry is tailored to make violent offenders seem alluring. The audience of this article would probably be people in the public and people familiar with the show. This is shown when the authors claim, “In order to fulfill his desire to control other people, he uses all kinds of different skills, comprising charm, the humiliation of others, ruthless lying, intimidation, gradually intensifying verbal attacks, feigning empathy and concern, and manipulative communication skills. To him, other people only serve one purpose—they are tools through which he can achieve his own goals.”(Palmen) In this part of the text, the authors utilize rather simple words like charm, humiliation, and manipulative in order to grasp the attention of a larger audience instead of using complex psychology jargon which would have isolated a huge part of his audience. The lack of psychology jargon shows that the article is not meant to inform people who are well versed in psychology. Instead, it introduces the public with a new way of interpreting the media they consume. The purpose of this article is to both inform the reader. For example, “ This is in contrast with the institutionalized psychopathic person who scores high on impulsiveness, engages in a parasitic lifestyle, shows poor behavioral control, and lacks any vision of realistic long-term goals or planfulness” The use of the word parasite insights a feeling of disgust and disdain which the author uses to plant seeds of fear into their audience. Fear would make the reader more inclined to listen to their point. Frank shows no signs of guilt or remorse, rather he seems rather proud of himself because he lacks the ability to take responsibility for himself (Palmen). The article informs its viewers of the lengths that people capable of going when they are willing to sacrifice their humanity just for short term success and happiness by vividly describing the traits and acts that Frank presents that can both make the people fear but also admire him. The article has an academic tone. For example, “On grounds of the accounts of the different psychopathic types, the controlled primary psychopathic type can be portrayed as charming, charismatic, and astute, and as someone who can eloquently present himself.” The authors are establishing respect and authority by being factually correct. The authors make definite statements without using seeming unnecessarily complex and convoluted ideas. The genre is nonfiction. “Most scholars postulate that Factor 1 of the PCL-R (affective and interpersonal traits) best represents primary psychopathy, and that Factor 2 (lifestyle and antisocial traits) overlaps more with secondary psychopathy.”(Palmen) These lines are used to establish factual evidence that is important in supporting the author’s statements. The evidence is also supported by other scholars, which means that the information seem more reliable. The medium would be a journal article published on the internet. Publishing this article on the internet allows for a larger audience to view this document and potentially learn something from it. Throughout the text, the author’s stance is rather neutral as shown by the lack of emotions or attitude from the authors. The authors never implement their own ideas or opinions, instead, they focus on the evidence provided and how it supports their claim.

In the journal article, “Into the Void”: The Hyperrealism of Simulation in Bret Easton Ellis’s “American Psycho” written by Martin Weinreich discusses how certain occupations can morph healthy thoughts, like how to befriend others, into unhealthy ones, like, making friends only for the sake of appearances(Weinreich 67). Patrick Batmen is a wealthy and attractive white male who is living an ideal life, but he has to seek the approval of others. The audience of this article would probably be older Americans and people with in-depth knowledge of English and sociology. This book is also meet for people with a higher education. For instance, “In fact, in the New York yuppie cosmos of the 1980s, the commodity seems to have become the only referential authority to the world. In relation to the role of the commodity, Guy Debord wrote in his seminal analysis about the consumer society.” Not only is the wording complex, but the writing also uses old terminology, or slang. The term yuppie is not a commonly used term, but it was in the 1980s in America. Because this is not the only time that the author uses this slang terms, it isolates a large part of their audience unless they are older and American. The complex wording requires a high reading and comprehension level which people with a higher form of education could understand. The tone is candid and impartial as shown when discussing the motives behind Batman’s obsessive nature regarding consumer goods like clothes, shoes, food, business cards, etc (Weinreich 71). The author does us a multitude of complex words but they still lack a discernible emotion. Words like ontological (Weinreich 71) hold no significant emotional weight as to oppose words like Glibness used in the Frank Underwood article. This article informs the readers. This is illustrated in the abstract where Weinreich states, “I argue that American Psycho is deliberately conceived and written by Ellis to convey a cultural critique of the social conditions of postmodern consumer capitalism as outlined by Jean Baudrillard, whose concepts of hyperreality and simulation provide a suitable framework for interpreting form, content, and structure of American Psycho.” (Weinreich 1) Since this line is from the very beginning to the article, it informs the reader of both the gist of the writing and the social implications that come from the movie. The genre is nonfiction. This is shown by the many times that the author provides credible sources to back their claim, like Baudrillard an expert in their field (Weinreich 67). The medium is a journal article published on the internet. Despite being published on the internet, it is relatively difficult to find a full version of the article. The people who read this article must truly be interested in the topic or else they wouldn’t have found and read the text. The connection that the audience makes with the authors writing is increased because only devoted and interested people will interact with the document. The author’s stance is quite complex because it is never said outright but it can be interpreted that she believes that society has a need for people like Bateman and so they breed people to be violent but seducing to entice others to follow the same path. The author highlights Bateman’s seemingly idyllic life by emphasising on his beautiful wife, extravagant home, and a well-paying job that requires little to no work. Since socializing and eating at expensive restaurants in the form of labor that Bateman and his coworkers have to commit to (Weinreich 66). When the author emphasizes the material aspect of Bateman’s life, it also proves her point that thinks like capitalism negatively impact one’s psyche.

The show Law and Order: Criminal Intent uses a rather conservative approach to the impact of gender on the inner motives of female violent offenders. According to “Dramatic Portrayals of Violent Women: Female Offenders on Prime Time Crime Dramas” By Dawn K. Cecil, Ph.D, the show romanticizes the criminal behavior of females by pinning the motive of the crime on the most romantic of all the emotions, love (Cecil 6). The audience of this text would most likely be people interested in gender studies or sociology and people interested in the show. According to Cecil, the show went through a change. “The ideological focus of crime dramas has changed from a liberal due process message to a more conservative crime control message.” The change would probably be noticeable to an avid view of the show. The article’s wording is not too complex, so it is more accessible to the softer sciences. The tone of this article seems slightly more critical towards the shows they are discussing. Cecil repeatedly criticized the TV shows for their inaccuracies like on page 7, “the relationship between crime and victimization suggests to the audience that these women deserved what they got because they are bad, ignoring the reality faced by many female offenders. These crime dramas also did not show female offenders as drug abusers, nor did they focus on the relationship between poverty and crime for these women. Instead, the motivations presented were much more self-centered and individualistic.” The show creators are ignoring the actual reason s why people commit crimes to entice and romanticize crime which leads to victim-blaming. The author mentions certain aspects that she finds to be offensive and how a TV show can improve itself. The purpose of the article is to inform the reader of the injustice that females characters face in terms of characterization. On page 6, the author provides statistical analysis of the characteristics of female offenders on prime time crime dramas. Using statistics makes the author seem like a reliable source of information and it also makes it seem like they are well versed in the topic. The genre is nonfiction which is shown by the statistical analysis on page 6. Despite the book being published and posted on the internet, the full pdf of the book so it wasn’t easily accessible. This might have been to narrow down the author’s audience so that only people knowledgeable on the subject would know that it exists. The book format also gives the writer ample time to develop their ideas as to oppose an article. The author disagrees with the way female violent offenders are sexualized and romanticized for the sake of entertainment. This is shown in how the author criticizes certain shows for making women seem “self-centered and individualistic.” (Cecil 7)

The last article, “Why Are We Fascinated with Violence? An Investigation of Mass Media’s Role in Depicting Violence as Entertainment” by Kseniya I. Dmitrieva elaborates on the many reasons people are fascinated by violent media and the impact that violent media can have on behavior. The audience would probably be people who consume violent media and people with in-depth knowledge of TV shows, psychology and sociology. For example, when the author states, “Orange is the New Black…and several Marvel-owned series (Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daredevil) that openly present violent content “on demand…These are just a few examples of violent television shows that give violence an entertaining angle. Portraying cruel and yet likeable villains, Game of Thrones has made violence more appealing, sometimes more romantic.” The author uses a variety of TV shows to show that the author’s notion on the fascination of violent offenders can apply to a large variety of media. The tone is blunt and passive because it’s an academic journal article. This is indicated by the reliance on statistical evidence and analysis. For example, the author does not just mention the over sensationalism that comes with violent behavior rather, it provides statistics like, “The rates of violent crime have been declining in recent years, becoming the lowest since the 1960s. In 2014, an estimated 11,205,833 total arrests were made: 498,666 for violent offenses…” this makes the author seem reliable and credible. The purpose of the article is to inform her audience of the many reasons people are fascinated with violence. The genre is nonfiction this is shown when the author provides data that shows crime statistics that show the prevalence of crime on page 2. And the medium is a journal article published on the internet. This makes the article accessible to a larger audience, and it also allows the author to state their findings concisely unlike a book that would need more information. The conscience nature of the writing makes it easier to understand.

All in all, these four articles show the varying aspects of violent media that make it alluring and how society pushes its people to be seduced by violent behavior. The authors use a myriad of rhetorical elements to discuss the growing fascination with violent offenders in the entertainment industry.

Work Cited:
1. Cecil, Dawn. “Dramatic Portrayals of Violent Women: Female Offenders on Prime Time Crime Dramas By.” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 2007

2. Dmitrieva, Kseniya L. “Why Are We Fascinated with Violence? An Investigation of Mass Media’s Role in Depicting Violence as Entertainment.” University of Rhode Island, 2017

3. Palmen, Désiré, et al. “House of Cards: Psychopathy in Politics.” Taylor and Francis Online, 2018

4. Weinreich, Martin. “‘Into the Void’: The Hyperrealism of Simulation in Bret Easton Ellis’s ‘American Psycho.’” Universitätsverlag WINTER Gmbh, 2004