Eleven Films I use in my Criminology and Criminal Justice Classes

Although textbooks, journal articles, and lectures are important, movies are one of the most effective teaching tools available to criminology and criminal justice instructors.

They can communicate ideas, emotions, institutional realities, and ethical dilemmas in ways that the written word often struggles with.

Throughout my teaching career, I have selectively incorporated narrative films into my classes. But every semester, I need to decide which movies to assign because not all films are equally useful. Some do a much better job of illustrating criminological concepts and stimulating discussion than others.

In general, I avoid documentaries. Although many are excellent, I find that students are more willing to engage with narrative films and more likely actually to watch them. 

Depending on the course, I typically require students to watch three or four movies during the semester and devote at least some class time to discussing them.

Films also give a course something that readings rarely provide: a shared reference point. Many students don’t complete all of their assigned readings. A movie, however, is more likely to hold their attention and give everyone who shows up to class that day something concrete to discuss.

Before the rise of streaming services and online instruction, I owned a DVD collection of relevant movies and frequently screened them during class. Today, things are more complicated. Licensing restrictions, asynchronous instruction, and varying student access to streaming platforms can make screening films more challenging. Nevertheless, I continue to find that movies remain one of the most effective ways to increase student engagement with course material.

Not every film belongs in every course. The entries below reflect the classes where I have found each film most useful. Some appear on multiple syllabi; others fit a narrower set of topics. Instructors teaching different courses will naturally draw from this list differently.

Another caveat is in order. The following are not necessarily the “best crime movies” ever made. Rather, they are films I have found particularly effective in helping students understand important criminological and criminal justice issues.

The Films

1. Cop Land (1997)

Starring Sylvester Stallone, this movie remains an excellent introduction to police culture, corruption, loyalty, and accountability. The film explores the difficulties of challenging misconduct both from within and outside a law enforcement organization and raises important questions about the so-called “blue wall of silence.” 

Best suited for: Introduction to Criminal Justice, Policing, Police Deviance and Corruption

2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

This film, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, raises issues surrounding wrongful conviction, institutional corruption, prisonization, and the psychological effects of long-term incarceration. The movie enables discussions about hope, adaptation, and what it means to maintain identity under conditions of total institutionalization.

Best suited for: Introduction to Criminal Justice, Corrections, Punishment, and Society

3. American Me (1992)

Directed by and starring Edward James Olmos, American Me traces gang involvement from adolescence through adulthood and imprisonment. The film illustrates how prison gangs emerge, maintain power, and shape criminal behavior both inside and outside correctional institutions. It also raises questions about race, identity, and the relationship between street organizations and prison culture that go beyond what most textbooks cover.

Best suited for: Gangs, Corrections, Race, and Crime

4. Dead Man Walking (1995)

This movie, starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon, explores the emotional impact of violent crime on victims’ families, questions of offender accountability, and the moral and legal controversies surrounding the death penalty, and the impact of people who want to assist those behind bars.

Best suited for: Corrections, Punishment and Society, Criminal Law, Introduction to Criminal Justice

5. Serpico (1973)

Based on the experiences of New York City police officer Frank Serpico, this film examines the challenges faced by whistleblowers within law enforcement. Starring Al Pacino, the movie remains one of the most powerful portrayals of how institutional loyalty can be weaponized against the people most committed to doing their jobs honestly. 

Best suited for: Policing, Police Deviance and Corruption, Criminal Justice Ethics

6. American History X (1998)

This film examines radicalization, hate groups, violence, and the social factors that draw young people into extremist movements. Starring Edward Norton, it also provides one of the more nuanced portrayals of desistance available in popular film: the conditions under which people change, and the obstacles they face when they try to. 

Best suited for: Criminological Theory, Gangs, Victimology, Introduction to Criminology

7. The Godfather (1972)

This film, which is over fifty years old, is about Italian-American organized crime and remains relevant. It does. The Godfather is still the most effective single film for introducing students to the structure, norms, internal discipline, and economic logic of criminal organizations. It illustrates concepts including hierarchy, loyalty, succession, and the relationship between legitimate and illegitimate enterprise, concepts that transfer directly to contemporary discussions of organized crime, whether the subject is the mafia, cartels, or other criminal networks.

Best suited for: Organized Crime, Introduction to Criminology, White-Collar and Corporate Crime

8. Brubaker (1980)

Starring Robert Redford as a reform-minded warden who goes undercover as a prisoner to investigate conditions at a rural Arkansas prison, Brubaker is one of the most instructive films available on the realities of correctional administration, institutional resistance to reform, and the gap between official policy and daily practice. It raises questions about power, accountability, and the limits of what individuals can accomplish inside bureaucratic institutions, questions that remain as relevant today as when the film was made.

Best suited for: Corrections, Correctional Administration, Punishment, and Society

9. The Killing Fields (1984) and Hotel Rwanda (2004)

In general, these two films can be used interchangeably. The Killing Fields documents the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. Hotel Rwanda examines the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the international community’s failure to intervene.  Both films push students to think beyond street crime and consider the most serious harms governments and political actors can commit. They also raise productive questions about bystander responsibility, international law, and the conditions under which ordinary people participate in extraordinary violence.

Best suited for: State Crime, Human Rights and Justice, Comparative Criminal Justice, Crimes of the Powerful

Final Thoughts

Admittedly, some of these films are now several decades old and lack the visual style of more contemporary cinema. Newer releases, however, rarely engage criminological and criminal justice themes with the same depth. With few exceptions, contemporary crime narratives are increasingly tropish in their portrayals of crime, criminality, and criminal justice organizations.

This means that instructors may need to prepare students for what they are about to watch. Why? Because they sometimes struggle with the pacing and visual style of older films. That’s understandable. A film from 1973, however, can depict police corruption in entirely current ways.

No film is perfect. They contain inaccuracies, stereotypes, or dramatic exaggerations. The goal of narrative films is not documentary accuracy. It’s to use film as a starting point for discussion, analysis, and critical thinking about crime and criminal justice.

What films do you use in your criminology or criminal justice classes? I’d be interested to hear what’s worked for you.

If you’re teaching or considering criminology or criminal justice and want to think more broadly about how the profession works, my Letters to a Young Criminologist was written for you.

 

Photo Credit

Title: Vintage Film Projector

Photographer: StockCake