Why are crime series like the German Tatort described as a mirror of social developments?

Crime fiction has a fixed causal chain (offender, motive, victim) and a clear dualism of good and evil, so it conveys values and an orderly picture of how society works. Its offenders are often prototypes of developments that society sees as negative.

According to Bleicher (2014):

• Clarity: the unchanging chain "offender, motive, victim" gives crime fiction a clear, closed world order that implies "this is how society works".
• Conveying values: the genre transmits values through a clear dualism of good and evil, embodied by offenders, victims and investigators.
• Reducing complexity: in a reality that is ever more complex and hard to see through, a structured crime story gives orientation and an experience-oriented reduction of complexity.
• Social critique: the antagonists, such as ruthless business owners or doctors, are often not the murderer at all. A business owner works as a personified critique of capitalism, so the morally relevant wrong is often not the murder and stays unpunished even after the murderer is arrested.
• Offenders as prototypes: offenders embody negatively seen developments, such as abuse of power or the surveillance of staff by discount retailers. Because Tatort was made by a public broadcaster, it did not have to spare advertisers and could take on economic crime.

The investigators stand for the social order that must be restored and secured.

Go deeper:

• Wikipedia: Tatort — the ARD series running since 1970, co-produced with Austria and Switzerland.