In a post on CrimeReads, Christopher Chambers asks where is the “street crime” in crime fiction.
During interviews with Chambers, writers suggested that street crime isn’t used to drive plots because it’s hard to sustain a story about something that is constant, impulsive, and anonymous yet intimate. Tracy Clark, author of Runner and Borrowed Time suggested that street crime isn’t glitzy or clever and doesn’t lend itself to puzzle solving. “It’s not espionage or a high-level corporate raid,” she said. “It’s just crime, crime that’s often senseless, dirty, irrational, random and most times painfully tragic. As readers, we kind of want a satisfying wrap up at the end of a book, don’t we?”
And yet, street crime can drive compelling human drama. “What motivates a driveby shooter? What makes a gangbanger? Who is responsible for a 15-year-old with a gun?” Clark asked. “Street crime hits home. It scars us where we live, it threatens those we love. I can’t think of anything more powerful to explore in a crime novel.”
Todd Robinson, former editor of THUGLIT, says street crime may be more accessible in television or film, because an audience may be more willing to spend two hours in a tough setting, rather than multiple hours in a 300 page novel. Street crime also dissipates the popular fantasy of crime, “where violence doesn’t hurt, where death is an inconvenient puzzle to be solved,” Robinson added.
Chambers also shares some quotes from creators who didn’t want to be attributed.
“You don’t see this [street crime] for the same reason millions discussed a spider on Queen Elizabeth’s casket yet had no clue about the destruction on Puerto Rico,” one source said. “We are in the escape business. Reality is uncomfortable. Especially if it involves ‘the other’ in terms of class and race.” Sources noted that the audience for HBO’s The Wire was smaller than that of The Sopranos, while Homicide, Life on the Street was less popular than its contemporary NYPD Blue. “Stories based on street crime are seen as ‘niche,'” one source said.
What do you think?
