The War Against Crime. It's the never-ending war of modern America.
Film loves crime because it's fast, loud and hip.
The crime genre allows writers to take many of the elements of the Action genre and update them to the urban battlefield where most of us now live. The Crime genre is quite different from the Detective form, because it isn't about uncovering crime. It's either about committing it or fighting it. Some crime stories get inside the criminal organization and the criminal mind. Others take the point of view of the cop, the warrior in a blue uniform who has to fight those who make their own laws.