How did the Real Housewives franchise become a hotbed of crime?

The Daily Beast

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City's Jen Shah, who was arrested this week on federal charges of defrauding the elderly, "is far from the only Real Housewives cast member to run into legal troubles. In fact, there’s barely one of Bravo’s franchises, which follow the lives of wealthy women in places such as New York City, Beverly Hills, Orange County, Potomac and Atlanta, that hasn’t been hit by allegations of crime," says Louis Staples, pointing to Real Housewives of New Jersey's Teresa and Joe Giudice and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member Erika Girardi's estranged husband Tom Girardi. In fact, many Real Housewives of Beverly Hills stars have run into legal problems. "So what’s driving this trend? After all, why would anyone go on reality TV if they’ve got skeletons in their closet?" asks Staples. "Firstly—and this might seem painfully obvious—it’s important to remember that rich people commit crime. Our idea of what the 'stereotypical criminal' looks like might not include a mansion, and fraud might’ve been neatly rebranded as 'white-collar crime,' but these crimes aren’t victimless or uncommon. When the former president of the United States is a reality star who was elected after setting up a fake university and spent his presidency openly pouring taxpayer funds into his own properties, it’s hardly surprising that reality stars further down the food chain like the Giudices (who are friends and supporters of Trump) are breaking the rules too. Wealthy people exploiting the corrupt systems that enable them to commit crimes like tax fraud crosses partisan lines, of course. And this pattern massively predates Trump’s presidency and the reality-TV phenomenon. Some might argue that the alleged 'Housewives crime wave' is down to reality TV attracting people who are risk-takers, vain, or simply airheads who want a luxury lifestyle but don’t want to work for it. These stereotypes might be true, to varying degrees, but it’s more likely that it’s just a snapshot of the sort of thing that goes on all the time, and we’re only noticing because they’re on TV."

ALSO:

• Jen Shah's fraud scandal is tragic, so why is it so much fun?: "I guess you could call it Shah-denfreude. Or I guess Shah-den-fraud," says Kevin Fallon. "What happened is awful. Real people were preyed on and defrauded. But that’s the moral conundrum here. The reality of it is horrific, but the Real Housewives ridiculousness of it all makes tracking the revelations a darkly delicious game for Bravo fans. The Shah-dropping details (puns pair with Housewives scandals like vodka with the 7 limes the cast members order at dinner) get juicier and, in some respects, funnier."
• Jen Shah's Real Housewives of Salt Lake City nemesis, Brooks Marks, is having a field day reacting to her arrest online