Abstract
This study focuses on the positive utility of extant ‘real-life’ situations as they are portrayed on television. In order to explore the viability of TV portrayals as pedagogical tools, the popular show Orange is the New Black was selected for its relevance to elements of feminist criminology. This quantitative content analysis features a deductive approach where an inductive approach is more typical. Five raters were introduced to Kathleen Daly’s Pathways research and asked to watch the first season of Orange is the New Black to identify instances of Daly’s archetypal pathways. The results suggest that key themes of the Pathways perspective are present within the show and it may therefore have potential as an academic tool given proper context. It should be noted that the study was limited by the broad thematic approach to the Pathways perspective, as well as the knowledge of chosen raters (resulting in weak inter-rater reliability). Future research should seek to rectify low inter-rater reliability through more thorough training or selection or raters.