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{{trope}}
Episodes of a [[Crime and Punishment Series]] focusing on a particular [[subculture]]. [[Did Not Do the Research|Accuracy is optional]], as the only research that goes into the episode is [[Ripped
The most important aspect of this trope is how the subcultures are ''always'' presented in a horrifically stereotyped manner. They aren't just [[Acceptable Targets|average people with non-mainstream interests]]. Rather, they are [[Straw Loser|total creeps with no social skills unrelated to their hobby]], which dominates their whole lives. For example, if it's a sexual subculture, they'll wear fetish gear to the supermarket and make inappropriate come-ons to the main character. If it's gamers ([[Video Games]] or [[Tabletop Games]]), they'll play to the point of addiction, [[Basement Dweller|live with their parents]] well into their 30's, possibly [[Murder Simulators|imitate the violence they commit in the game]], and are probably [[Nerds Are Virgins|virgins]]. If it's [[
{{examples
* [[Acceptable Religious Targets|Religion]], as it's presented in media, could fill a subtrope of this by itself. The idea that most religious people ascribe to a belief system but don't make their lives revolve around it will almost never be brought up. A [[Church Militant|church parishoner]] will gun down a reporter about to expose a church secret [[Knight Templar|if it's "God's Will" that it be done]].
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** There was also the 'Down the Rabbit Hole' episode which dealt with [[Second Life]]. This spanned over two episodes rather than the usual one.
** And one about "vampire cults" who drink each others' blood. {{spoiler|Surprisingly, no vampires committed the crimes. The episode treated vampirism like an unpopular but venerable religion.}}
** Yet another episode involved the owners of adult dolls (although it turned out that the doll ownership was irrelevant to the murder). Basically, ''[[CSI New York]]'', like all of the ''[[CSI: Crime Scene Investigation]]'' shows, is pretty much in love with this trope.
* The famous ''[[CSI: Crime Scene Investigation]]'' Episode "Fur and Loathing", set at a furry convention began it all. The portrayal of furries caused considerable controversy in that fandom. The episode was even a [[Jump the Shark]] moment for some, who saw it as the start of a freak-a-week format. Many other cases in ''
** An episode where the victim, a powerful casino owner, was an adult baby in his spare time.
** Almost as well-known as "Fur and Loathing", "Slaves of Las Vegas", which introduced viewers to Lady Heather and her BDSM club. Lady Heather actually became a well developed (if only sporadically recurring) character.
** More recently, they pulled off a murder-at-the-''Star''-''Trek''-convention storyline, albeit with the [[Captain Ersatz|serial numbers filed off]]. Trekkies, Trekkies everywhere...
* The ''[[CSI: Miami]]'' episode dealing with videogames, in which the characters had to actually play the game in question to find out its plot, which was necessary for them to solve the cause. Why they don't just look up its plot online is anyone's guess. There's also a notable level of [[New Media Are Evil]] in the episode. Basically, a video games company decides that a good advertising tactic for their GTA clone (which somehow [[Pac
* ''[[Bones]]'' does this quite often. There has been episodes about comic book, role-playing teens, pony play fetishists, and karaoke singers (with actual former American Idol contestants).
** Mostly averted in the episode dealing with black metal, though. Some of the stranger excesses of the subculture are brought to the fore, but Bones's psychiatrist is revealed to have a history in the scene and Booth compares the distaste over it to his dad's distaste for punk. The most significant error they make is that, while virtually everything regarding extreme black metal is true to a degree, the death metal subculture really isn't as violent or cult-like as the Norwegian black metal scene that clearly inspired the events of the episode. Furthermore, few death metal bands wear corpse paint, or use fake names, and only a handful are satanic.
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** This also gets annoying when Sweets (the psychiatrist) "analyzes" the subculture in question, and ends up pretty much generalizing the entire subculture and assuming everyone who's a part of it thinks and acts exactly the same.
* This trope would be incomplete without mentioning "Next Stop, Nowhere," a.k.a, "the punk rock episode of ''[[Quincy]]''." In the 80's hardcore punk subculture, the episode spawned the slur "[[The Quincy Punk|Quincy Punk]]," applied to scene members and bands who personified the sloppy, antisocial, mohawked stereotype. This was at a time when hardcore was about dressing normal, playing tight, and maintaining a positive or at least thoughtful attitude.
* In one episode, only one cop on ''[[Law
** The franchise as a whole (The Mothership, ''SVU'', and ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent|CI]]'') tends to treat sports fans this way.
* One ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' episode focuses on a murder at a rent-a-friend agency. The actual customers are portrayed sympathetically, but Ned eventually decries the whole enterprise as useless, because while the patrons may enjoy it for a time, "deep down they never stop thinking of themselves as weirdos who need to be fixed".
* Most crime shows can attest to having had a vampire-related episode at some point of time. ''[[
** ''Series/Criminal Minds'' at least didn't portray the subculture as the ''cause'' of the culprit's murderous ways; it was made very clear that the killer was suffering from a rare mental illness that provoked obsession with blood-drinking, and had likely had it since childhood.
** Hilariously, an episode of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' did this with a vampire wannabe cult (mind you, in a show where vampires were very real). At one point, Angel (the resident good guy vampire) is complaining about how these kids know nothing about vampires, don't know how they dress... and pauses as a guy walks by [[Crowning Moment of Funny|dressed exactly the same as him.]] At the end of the episode, Buffy has to save the vampire wannabes from the real vampires, who mostly just want to kill them and feed off them.
** ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' also did an episode about vampire wannabes. It starts off as a funny [[Take That]] against ''[[Twilight (
* An episode of ''[[The Mentalist]]'' featured a young Wiccan (a new-age form of witchcraft) who naturally came under suspicion when one of her peers was killed in a ritualistic fashion. An especially aggravating case as half the facts spouted about Wicca [[Did Not Do the Research|were blatantly wrong]]. Neopagan religions often appear in shows like this, and rarely do the writing staff seem to feel any compulsion to actually research them first.
* A sixth-season episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' used ''bloggers'' as the [[Freaks of the Week]]. Seeing as everyone and their grandmother has a blog these days, seeing it portrayed as a crazy new subculture was... [[Narm|odd.]]
* The [[The Sixties|late-60's]] revival of ''[[Dragnet]]'' used the hippie counterculture as recurring freaks-of-the-week in a number of poorly researched episodes. The most infamous of these is the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0zgIzqgxFU "Blue Boy" episode], for its [[So Bad
* One episode of ''[[Law
** Special Victim's Unit seems to have a particularly strange deficiency in this area. As well as the example above, the cops who are supposed experts in this field often seem ludicriously ill informed about even the most general sexual behaviour and cultures. In one episode, several of them express incredulity over the theory cited by a colleague that a man might be gay even though he has a wife. And in another episode the idea that someone could be bi-sexual rather than straight out gay seems to be bizarrely unheard of, sparking more astonishment from the characters.
* In ''[[Nip
* Arguably the whole point of the [[MTV]] reality show ''[[
** More often than not, it winds up as a double-subversion.
* In ''[[Castle]]'' "Punked" is a subversion. The local [[Steampunk]] club is just full of amiable young people who are a bit [[Adorkable]] but basically just want to have fun. The craziest thing they do (aside from the simulated craziness) was when two of them had a duel over a girl. And as neither had a real grudge to fight over, that was deliberately paced at such extreme range that neither could possibly hit the other which was the point of the stunt.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Index of the Week]]
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
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