“Whose Manhattan?”: Mapping Color‐blind Justice for Latinos on Law & Order

Running from 1990 to 2010, the procedural drama "Law & Order" depicts the investigation and prosecution of homicides from the perspectives of the police and district attorney's office in Manhattan. Latino/as appear throughout the show's history on both the criminal and prosecutorial sides of the justice system, embodying social tensions of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. "Law & Order's" stories featuring Latino/as mostly depict crimes associated with poverty, urban violence, social deviance, and informal economies, as opposed to those featuring non-Latino white defendants who are associated with familial disputes and white collar crimes such as corporate fraud and misconduct. "Law & Order's" rendering of equal justice is not equal at all, particularly in its treatment of Latino men. Latino males in the justice system on Law and Order reveal the tensions in complicating enduring racialized and gendered media narratives of Latinos in the urban United States. Themes of immigration, the Latino male as bandido (criminal foreign invader), and the American dream permeate the presentation of Latinos on Law & Order.