Final Project: Fiction versus Reality
In this assignment, you will exercise critical thinking skills. Remember to suspend judgment while inquiring into the reality-based aspects of the fictional courtroom drama as compared to its reality. Accurately comparing this fiction with its reality requires application of problem solving skills and methods. The last item calls for an evaluative decision you will make on the fiction and reality of the court system.
· Resources: Appendix A, The Courts in Our Criminal Justice System, and the Court TV Web site at http://www.courttv.com/home_primetime/index.html
· Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper in APA format comparing the entertainment fiction of the court system with its reality.
· Select examples from fictional portrayals of the courtroom found in books, movies, or television, for example, The Runaway Jury, A Few Good Men, or Law and Order. Use the Court TV Web site to help your research.
· Describe the fictional portrayals of the courtroom including the trial process, the roles of the prosecution and defense, the roles of the courtroom participants (expand your response from the Week Five CheckPoint), and the handling or implementation of rights for the defendant and the victim. Then, draw parallels between the fictional portrayal and the reality of the courtroom within above identified aspects.
· Determine the accuracy of the fictional courtroom process as compared to that of the courtroom reality. Use your reading of the text, outside sources, and any experience in the courtroom as resources. Be sure to answer the following:
o In your opinion, is this fictional courtroom a reliable source of information pertinent to the understanding of the actual court system? Explain your opinion.
o Given that entertainment differs from reality, what impact would your fictional account of...