TV REVIEW : Subtle as a Jackhammer, KTLA’s ‘Crimes’ Makes Its Rough Points

Tough. Everything about “Crimes of Violence,” KTLA’s two-hour special on why some children grow up to become dangerous murderers and thieves, is tough (8-10 tonight on Channel 5).

The six violent criminals whose crimes and lives are chronicled are tough. They talk tough--and four-letter-word dirty. The subject matter--aggravated assault, robbery, rape, murder and how easily and randomly anyone can become a victim--is scary tough. Even host Louis Gossett Jr. looks and talks tough.

Right after the tone is set with a dramatic reenactment of a random assault in a parking garage, Gossett puts on his toughest face and warns: “Prepare yourself, you’re about to see shocking, personal portraits of violent criminals, the forces that shaped them and the destruction they’ve caused.”

He isn’t kidding.

Producer Arnold Shapiro (“Scared Straight!”) hasn’t lost his rough touch and doesn’t miss a trick. He doesn’t just introduce a mixed six-pack of sociopaths and psychopaths who tell how miserable their home lives were. He reenacts their crimes in lurid and raw black-and-white videotape or surreal, quick-cutting black-and-white still photos.

Then Shapiro interviews the criminals, their victims and their parents, most of whom are shown to be irresponsible, and who themselves were drunk, drugged or neglectful during much of their children’s formative years. He shows the innocent childhood photos of future murderers.

When he can, Shapiro also shows interview videotapes of the rape victim to the rapist or tapes of the murder victim’s mother to the killer, and vice versa. He even arranges a face-to-face, bars-between-them meeting between a remorseless, cold-hard holdup punk and the bitter clerk whose life he’s scarred forever. It’s a tense, if contrived example of Geraldo Rivera-esque confrontational TV that ultimately proves pointless as it breaks down into name-calling.

But Shapiro, for all his prison-cell-door-slamming style and occasional sensationalism, could never be accused of producing boring TV. “Crimes of Violence,” however flawed, is provocative, compelling and well-intentioned.

The conclusion--that unstable childhoods doomed six very different criminals to lives of crime--seems sound. And the 13 sensible tips for responsible parenting that Gossett provides may seem obvious, but apparently they aren’t to everyone. As Gossett says, raising children is a tough job and we all make mistakes--but no job is more important.