Cultural Contours of Justice: Law and Crimes Narratives in Popular Imagination

Abstract

This research delves into the cultural contours of justice in the context of Pakistan, with special emphasis on the complex relationship between the media, the ever-shifting norms in a given society, and the laws of the land. It reveals how regional legacies of colonialism and Sharia law shape attitudes toward justice, crime, and punishment. The research highlights a significant discrepancy between the public experience and the reality of crime trends, suffering from the amplification of sensationalistic media coverage, leading to a decline in trust towards police and the system of justice. By employing qualitative assessments of media representations and public opinion surveys, as well as quantitative analyses of crime statistics, to investigate the socio-cultural contexts shaping local perceptions of justice in Pakistan, the report exposes how sensationalist media heighten social fear; how they misrepresent marginalized populations; and how they reinforce existing stereotypes of criminality, thus developing warped views of the extent and nature of crime. The study also highlights notable differences in how justice is practised across different regions, particularly rural settings where traditional normative values differ from codified legal norms. These results highlight the importance of culturally competent legal reform and ethical journalism to mitigate the gap between perception and reality so that the public can trust the justice system.