The Judge on the Screen

Vincenzo Tomeo’s pioneering research in the 1960s and 1970s drew attention to the importance of popular culture in our understanding of the operation of the justice system. He was the first to recognize that how laws are interpreted and put into effect depends heavily on how the public understand them. This understanding comes from the ideas and understanding which the public have about the justice system. These ideas, in an era of mass popular culture, come largely from film. In his groundbreak