Crime Time Office Hours
This is a podcast that cuts through the noise to make crime and justice clear, one issue at a time. I’m Kevin Buckler, PhD in Criminal Justice, and a professor at a four-year public university. I plan to bring you sharp, unfiltered conversations and content about the issues shaping our legal system, our communities, and the academic world.
Crime Time Office Hours
Introduction to the Crime Time Office Hours Podcast
This inaugural episode of Crime Time Office Hours introduces the podcast concept and purpose. Crime events become cultural rituals that shape our fears, values, and sense of social order. Using Howard Beale’s iconic “mad as hell” moment from Network as a starting point, it breaks down why crime narratives resonate so deeply—and why this podcast exists to cut through the noise.
Welcome to Crime Time Office Hours. This is a podcast that cuts through the noise to make crime and justice clear one issue at a time. I'm Kevin Buckler, PhD in criminal justice and a professor at a four-year public university. I plan to bring you sharp, unfiltered conversations and content about the issues shaping our legal system, our communities, and the academic world. Whether you're a student, a scholar, or just crime curious, this is your space for evidence-based insight, informed critique, and just the right dose of irreverence. Because justice is serious, but we don't always have to be.
Network (1976) Character Howard Beale:I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this anymore.
Kevin Buckler (Host):That voice, Howard Beale in Network 1976, a television anchor pushed to the brink, shouting what audiences already felt. The world had slipped off its moral axis. His rage wasn't about crime specifically, it was about power, fear, and the sense that the old rules no longer applied.
Kevin Buckler (Host):That speech hits the same pressure points that crime stories do today. It turns the unease of everyday life into a single compelling narrative. Howard tells his viewers what everybody knows, that streets are not safe, corruption is everywhere, and things are getting worse. Whether or not those fears match reality is almost beside the point. Crime becomes the form through which we express a different anxiety about decline, disorder, and the loss of certainty.
Kevin Buckler (Host):Beale isn't just delivering the news, he's channeling a cultural ritual. We don't just watch crime, we use it to make sense of the chaos. Headlines, true crime documentaries, TikToks about danger in the city. They all share the same purpose. We want to name the threat, define it, and believe, at least for a moment, that the world is still understandable.
Kevin Buckler (Host):When people say society is falling apart, they're rarely talking specifically about crime statistics. They're talking about values. Crime becomes shorthand for the deeper feeling that something has broken in our social fabric safety, civility, order, trust. We respond to stories about crime not just for information, but for emotional clarity, just like Howard Beale's audience shouting back at their screens.
Kevin Buckler (Host):That's why the network monologue still resonates. It reflects a public that feels overwhelmed and uncertain. It shows us how crime discourse becomes emotional long before it becomes analytical. And that's exactly why I created this podcast. Because crime isn't about what happens in the streets, it's about how we understand ourselves, our communities, and our collective fears.
Kevin Buckler (Host):This podcast exists to cut through the noise, to ask deeper questions, and explore crime as a social and cultural force, not just a headline.
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Kevin Buckler (Host):In this inaugural episode, I want to talk about the podcast. The name Crime Time Office Hours brings together two parts of my world, the study of crime and justice, and the academic setting where much of that exploration takes place. Crime Time signals that we're diving into real issues, from criminal law and policy to policing, courts, corrections, and beyond. Office hours reflects the kind of open, informal, and engaging conversations I try to have with students and colleagues. The kind where tough questions get asked, honest answers are expected, and learning goes both ways. This podcast is an extension of that space. Part classroom, part coffee chat, all focused on unpacking the complex realities of crime and justice in today's world.
Kevin Buckler (Host):Here's how crime time office hours will work. I keep a close eye on academic research, media coverage, social commentary, and popular culture, all the places where crime and justice are being discussed, debated, and defined.
Kevin Buckler (Host):Each episode will tackle a topic that I find timely, important, or just plain interesting. Sometimes I'll bring guests, scholars, practitioners, and other voices in the field to offer insights and expertise. Other times it might just be me unpacking an issue I think deserves attention. Sometimes I will choose a local issue, and when I say local, I mean Houston, Texas, where I live. Other times the topics and issues will be less regional and will touch on events or issues in different areas of America.
Kevin Buckler (Host):Crime and justice are inherently political topics, and I won't shy away from that. But I'll always aim to include a range of perspectives and encourage critical, open-minded discussion. I hope that you'll leave each episode with a more nuanced understanding of complex crime and justice issues. By the end of each episode, I want you to come away with a richer appreciation for the social, political, and cultural forces that shape how we understand crime and justice.
Kevin Buckler (Host):Throughout the episodes you'll hear a typewriter sound. That's intentional. It's a small moment of nostalgia, but it is also used to signal to you, the listener, that we're shifting into analysis. In an age of nonstop media, scrolling headlines and rapid fire speculation, the typewriter reminds us to slow down. It's a nod to a time when information wasn't just consumed, but crafted. When reporting and commentary took time, care, and attention. A typewriter doesn't begin quietly. The bell, a bright metallic ding that signals the end of a line and the return to start again.
Kevin Buckler (Host):It is precise, unmistakable, and direct. Unlike a keyboard or a touch screen, a typewriter demands presence. It doesn't let the words rush by, it makes you hear them. It snaps to life with a sharp, mechanical click, followed by the steady rhythm of keys striking the page. Each keystroke lands with weight and intention. That sound you heard. It marks the places in this podcast where I step back, reflect, and break down what's really happening.
Kevin Buckler (Host):There's another variation you'll hear throughout this series typewriter keys without the bell.
Kevin Buckler (Host):Just the steady tapping of letters being struck, one after another, without punctuation or pause. It has a different meaning. It isn't about the start of analysis, it's about the accumulation of detail, the way facts are built word by word. You'll hear that sound underneath certain moments in this podcast, especially when I quote direct from a newspaper or read from a report. It's a signal that we're grounding the narrative in something tangible, an actual document, an article, a record. The keys become a subtle reminder. These aren't just ideas or theories, these are the words that were printed, published, and preserved.
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Kevin Buckler (Host):If you learned something or laughed, even nervously, go ahead and give that like button some love. Believe me, it's a lot easier than my course exams and writing assignments.
Kevin Buckler (Host):I am Kevin Buckler, your host, and I hope you return for additional episodes of Crime Time Office Hours, the podcast where we cut through the noise to make crime and justice clear one issue at a time.